People Detail

Researcher in CBMA, Braga, since September 2020; Assistant researcher in ICVS (2019-2020); Post doctoral researcher in ICVS since 2014; Post doctoral researcher in ISPUP, Porto (2013-2014); PhD in Molecular Pharmacology, University of Liverpool (2012) and Biology Degree from FCUP.

Team member:
> Project PTDC/SOC-ANT/30316/2017 “From Portugal back to Africa: uncovering the african roots of present-day Portuguese”
> Project “Which, when and for who? Serodiagnosis as a tool to complement diagnosis and evaluate population immunity against SARS-CoV-2”, sponsored by FCT, Soluções Inovadoras para Resposta à Pandemia de COVID-19
> Project PTDC/SAU-PUB/29521/2017 “Understanding the tuberculosis transmission chains in Porto to improve control strategies”, sponsored by FCT

Principal Investigator:
> Project “Characterization of the genetic diversity of the LTA4H locus in tuberculosis and diabetes mellitus patients”, sponsored by European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), ICVS, UMinho, Portugal
Team member:
> Project PT06-000138DT1 “Prevention and control of tuberculosis in vulnerable populations of an urban centre in Northern Portugal”, sponsored by Program Public Health Initiatives, EEAGrants, PI: Raquel Duarte, ISPUP, Portugal.
> Project PTDC/DTP-PIC/0747/2012 “Active tuberculosis in diabetic patients: biological basis for the increased susceptibility”, sponsored by FCT, PI: Raquel Duarte, ISPUP, Portugal and Margarida Correia-Neves, ICVS, UMinho.
> Project PTDC/CS-ANT/113832/2009 “Genetic and chronological characterisation of the European settlements by modern humans in the Upper Palaeolithic”, sponsored by FCT, PI: Luísa Pereira, IPATIMUP, Portugal.

Current:
> 4th year PhD student: Olena Oliveira, PhD in Health Sciences, University of Minho, Thesis: “Risk factors associated with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis transmission in Portugal”
> 1st year PhD student: Carla Erica Matos, PhD in Molecular and Environmental Biology, University of Minho, Thesis: " Bioinformatic approaches to the genomic and epidemiological study of hospital- and community-acquired Klebsiella pneumoniae infections"
> Luísa Azevedo Sá, Master thesis in Molecular Genetics, Project and thesis: “Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of African lineages”
> Anisse Medane, Master thesis in Molecular Genetics, Project and thesis: “Understanding transmission chains and episodes of reinfection of tuberculosis through genetic characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates”

Oliveira, O., Ribeiro, A.I., Krainski, E.T., Rito, T., Duarte, R., Correia-Neves, M.; Using Bayesian spatial models to map and to identify geographical hotspots of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Portugal between 2000 and 2016
(2020) Scientific Reports, 10 (1); DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-73759-w

Rito, T., Richards, M.B., Pala, M., Correia-Neves, M., Soares, P.A.; Phylogeography of 27,000 sars-cov-2 genomes: Europe as the major source of the covid-19 pandemic (2020) Microorganisms, 8 (11), pp. 1-14.; DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms8111678

Inlamea, O.F., Soares, P., Ikuta, C.Y., Heinemann, M.B., Achá, S.J., Machado, A., Neto, J.S.F., Correia-Neves, M., Rito, T.; Evolutionary analysis of mycobacterium bovis genotypes across africa suggests co-evolution with livestock and humans
(2020) PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 14 (3), ; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008081

Rito, T., Vieira, D., Silva, M., Conde-Sousa, E., Pereira, L., Mellars, P., Richards, M.B., Soares, P.; A dispersal of Homo sapiens from southern to eastern Africa immediately preceded the out-of-Africa migration (2019) Scientific Reports, 9 (1),; DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-41176-3

Rito, T., Ferreira, J., Cavadas, B., Soares, P., Oliveira, O., Richards, M.B., Duarte, R., Pereira, L., Correia-Neves, M.; Association of leukotriene A4 hydrolase with tuberculosis susceptibility using genomic data in Portugal
(2019) Microorganisms, 7 (12), DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms7120650

Oliveira, O., Gaio, R., Carvalho, C., Correia-Neves, M., Duarte, R., Rito, T.; A nationwide study of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Portugal 2014-2017 using epidemiological and molecular clustering analyses
(2019) BMC Infectious Diseases, 19 (1), DOI: 10.1186/s12879-019-4189-7

Silva, M., Justeau, P., Rodrigues, S., Oteo-Garcia, G., Dulias, K., Foody, G., Fichera, A., Yau, B., Rito, T., Wilson, J.F., Gandini, F., Edwards, C.J., Pala, M., Soares, P.A., Richards, M.B.; Untangling Neolithic and Bronze Age mitochondrial lineages in South Asia (2019) Annals of Human Biology, 46 (2); DOI: 10.1080/03014460.2019.1623319

Brucato, N., Fernandes, V., Kusuma, P., Cerny, V., Mulligan, C.J., Soares, P., Rito, T., Besse, C., Boland, A., Deleuze, J.-F., Cox, M.P., Sudoyo, H., Stoneking, M., Pereira, L., Ricaut, F.-X., Saitou, N.; Evidence of Austronesian Genetic Lineages in East Africa and South Arabia: Complex Dispersal from Madagascar and Southeast Asia
(2019) Genome Biology and Evolution, 11 (3), pp. 748-758. ; DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evz028

Rito, T., Matos, C., Carvalho, C., Machado, H., Rodrigues, G., Oliveira, O., Ferreira, E., Gonçalves, J., Maio, L., Morais, C., Ramos, H., Guimarães, J.T., Santos, C.L., Duarte, R., Correia-Neves, M.; A complex scenario of tuberculosis transmission is revealed through genetic and epidemiological surveys in Porto (2018) BMC Infectious Diseases, 18 (1), DOI: 10.1186/s12879-018-2968-1

Machado, A., Rito, T., Ghebremichael, S., Muhate, N., Maxhuza, G., Macuamule, C., Moiane, I., Macucule, B., Marranangumbe, A.S., Baptista, J., Manguele, J., Koivula, T., Streicher, E.M., Warren, R.M., Kallenius, G., van Helden, P., Correia-Neves, M.; Genetic diversity and potential routes of transmission of Mycobacterium bovis in Mozambique
(2018) PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 12 (1), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006147

Olivieri, A., Sidore, C., Achilli, A., Angius, A., Posth, C., Furtwängler, A., Brandini, S., Capodiferro, M.R., Gandini, F., Zoledziewska, M., Pitzalis, M., Maschio, A., Busonero, F., Lai, L., Skeates, R., Gradoli, M.G., Beckett, J., Marongiu, M., Mazzarello, V., Marongiu, P., Rubino, S., Rito, T., Macaulay, V., Semino, O., Pala, M., Abecasis, G.R., Schlessinger, D., Conde-Sousa, E., Soares, P., Richards, M.B., Cucca, F., Torroni, A.; Mitogenome Diversity in Sardinians: A Genetic Window onto an Island's Past (2017) Molecular Biology and Evolution, 34 (5), DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msx082

Silva, M., Oliveira, M., Vieira, D., Brandão, A., Rito, T., Pereira, J.B., Fraser, R.M., Hudson, B., Gandini, F., Edwards, C., Pala, M., Koch, J., Wilson, J.F., Pereira, L., Richards, M.B., Soares, P.; A genetic chronology for the Indian Subcontinent points to heavily sex-biased dispersals (2017) BMC evolutionary biology, 17 (1), DOI: 10.1186/s12862-017-0936-9

Brandão, A., Eng, K.K., Rito, T., Cavadas, B., Bulbeck, D., Gandini, F., Pala, M., Mormina, M., Hudson, B., White, J., Ko, T.-M., Saidin, M., Zafarina, Z., Oppenheimer, S., Richards, M.B., Pereira, L., Soares, P.; Quantifying the legacy of the Chinese Neolithic on the maternal genetic heritage of Taiwan and Island Southeast Asia (2016) Human Genetics, 135 (4), pp. 363-376. DOI: 10.1007/s00439-016-1640-3

Soares, P.A., Trejaut, J.A., Rito, T., Cavadas, B., Hill, C., Eng, K.K., Mormina, M., Brandão, A., Fraser, R.M., Wang, T.-Y., Loo, J.-H., Snell, C., Ko, T.-M., Amorim, A., Pala, M., Macaulay, V., Bulbeck, D., Wilson, J.F., Gusmão, L., Pereira, L., Oppenheimer, S., Lin, M., Richards, M.B.; Resolving the ancestry of Austronesian-speaking populations
(2016) Human Genetics, 135 (3), pp. 309-326. DOI: 10.1007/s00439-015-1620-z

Soares, P., Rito, T., Pereira, L., Richards, M.B.; A genetic perspective on African prehistory
(2016) Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, pp. 383-405. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-7520-5_18

Hernández, C.L., Soares, P., Dugoujon, J.M., Novelletto, A., Rodríguez, J.N., Rito, T., Oliveira, M., Melhaoui, M., Baali, A., Pereira, L., Calderón, R.; Early holocenic and historic mtDNA African signatures in the Iberian Peninsula: The Andalusian region as a paradigm (2015) PLoS ONE, 10 (10), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139784

Gomes, V., Pala, M., Salas, A., Álvarez-Iglesias, V., Amorim, A., Gómez-Carballa, A., Carracedo, Á., Clarke, D.J., Hill, C., Mormina, M., Shaw, M.-A., Dunne, D.W., Pereira, R., Pereira, V., Prata, M.J., Sánchez-Diz, P., Rito, T., Soares, P., Gusmão, L., Richards, M.B.; Mosaic maternal ancestry in the Great Lakes region of East Africa
(2015) Human Genetics, 134 (9), pp. 1013-1027. ; DOI: 10.1007/s00439-015-1583-0

Fernandes, V., Triska, P., Pereira, J.B., Alshamali, F., Rito, T., Machado, A., Fajkošová, Z., Cavadas, B., Černý, V., Soares, P., Richards, M.B., Pereira, L.; Genetic stratigraphy of key demographic events in Arabia
(2015) PLoS ONE, 10 (3), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118625

Cavadas, B., Soares, P., Camacho, R., Brandão, A., Costa, M.D., Fernandes, V., Pereira, J.B., Rito, T., Samuels, D.C., Pereira, L.; Fine Time Scaling of Purifying Selection on Human Nonsynonymous mtDNA Mutations Based on the Worldwide Population Tree and Mother-Child Pairs (2015) Human Mutation, 36 (11), pp. 1100-1111. DOI: 10.1002/humu.22849

Pereira, L., Soares, P., Triska, P., Rito, T., Van Der Waerden, A., Li, B., Radivojac, P., Samuels, D.C. Global human frequencies of predicted nuclear pathogenic variants and the role played by protein hydrophobicity in pathogenicity potential
(2014) Scientific Reports, 4. DOI: 10.1038/srep07155

Martins, R.G., Nunes, J.B., Máximo, V., Soares, P., Peixoto, J., Catarino, T., Rito, T., Soares, P., Pereira, L., Sobrinho-Simões, M., Santos, A.P., Couto, J., Henrique, R., Matos-Loureiro, J., Dias, P., Torres, I., Lima, J.; A founder SDHB mutation in Portuguese paraganglioma patients (2013) Endocrine-Related Cancer, 20 (6), pp. L23-L26. DOI: 10.1530/ERC-12-0399

Rito, T., Richards, M.B., Fernandes, V., Alshamali, F., Cerny, V., Pereira, L., Soares, P. The first modern human dispersals across Africa (2013) PLoS ONE, 8 (11), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080031

Warman, A.J., Rito, T.S., Fisher, N.E., Moss, D.M., Berry, N.G., O'Neill, P.M., Ward, S.A., Biagini, G.A.; Antitubercular pharmacodynamics of phenothiazines (2013) Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 68 (4), pp. 869-880. DOI: 10.1093/jac/dks483

Soares, P., Abrantes, D., Rito, T., Thomson, N., Radivojac, P., Li, B., Macaulay, V., Samuels, D.C., Pereira, L.; Evaluating Purifying Selection in the Mitochondrial DNA of Various Mammalian Species (2013) PLoS ONE, 8 (3), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058993

Soares, P., Rito, T., Trejaut, J., Mormina, M., Hill, C., Tinkler-Hundal, E., Braid, M., Clarke, D.J., Loo, J.-H., Thomson, N., Denham, T., Donohue, M., MacAulay, V., Lin, M., Oppenheimer, S., Richards, M.B.; Ancient voyaging and polynesian origins (2011) American Journal of Human Genetics, 88 (2), pp. 239-247. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.01.009

Soares, P., Ermini, L., Thomson, N., Mormina, M., Rito, T., Röhl, A., Salas, A., Oppenheimer, S., Macaulay, V., Richards, M.B.; Correcting for Purifying Selection: An Improved Human Mitochondrial Molecular Clock (2009) American Journal of Human Genetics, 84 (6), pp. 740-759. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.05.001