Short Biography: Maria Leonor Quintais Cancela da Fonseca (Leonor Cancela)
Place and date of birth: Lisbon, 24-10-1956
Institutional address and Research affiliation: Dept of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine, University of Algarve, and Centre of Marine Sciences
Telephone: +351/ 289800971/916708275 / E-mail: lcancela@ualg.pt
Current position: Full Professor, University of Algarve/Dept of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine
Current research interests
Main: Molecular, environmental and epigenetic determinants affecting transcription regulation of genes expressed during onset of skeletogenesis in vertebrates. Vitamin K dependent proteins and their effect on cell differentiation and tissue mineralization in normal and pathological conditions, effect on cell proliferation and invasion associated to tumor development. Age related human pathologies (i.e Paget disease of bone, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis) and rare diseases (Keutel, MRD20, Holt-Oram, CDKL5 Syndromes) with a skeletal phenotype. Development of in vitro and in vivo models (zebrafish) for human skeletal diseases
Others: Biotechnological applications of marine resources with emphasis on screening for identification of molecules with mineralogenic/ osteogenic activities. Molecular evolution of skeletal related proteins.
Web site: http://bioskel.ccmar.ualg.pt/
Involvement in undergraduate/post graduate training
Director of the Bachelor and PhD programs in Biomedical Sciences, University of Algarve. Member of the Direction board of the Master Degree in Biomedical Science, University of Algarve.
Coordinated: 20 postdocs, 25 PhD students (+6 ongoing); 35 Master thesis (+2 ongoing); >50 undergraduate research projects from degrees in Biology, Biotechnology, Marine Biology, Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences and Medicine
Published work; ~200 papers international peer reviewed journals, 15 book chapters, 7 patents