Diogo Estevao

Studying the impact of ionizing radiation on bridging rectal cancer and its immune microenvironment, paving the way for the discovery of novel radioresistance mechanisms.
 

Diogo considers himself very passionate and fascinated by the life sciences field, especially in understanding the cancer mechanisms that make this a highly adaptable and thriving disease. Therefore, he developed his master's project at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology in Porto (IPO-Porto), where his main goal was to explore the HPV-induced carcinogenesis by the expression of its oncoproteins in the K14-HPV16 transgenic mouse model, which led not only to the observation that HPV16 alone might act as a powerful carcinogen to develop head and neck cancers but also allowed to develop the very first mouse model for the study of HPV-induced penile cancer. Not long before, Diogo did an internship at the Center for Anatomy and Cell Biology in Vienna, Austria, being involved in several projects regarding tRNA biology. During his bachelor’s in Biology, under the Erasmus+ program, in the Department of Experimental Biology at the Science Faculty of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, Diogo developed a project whose main goal was to assess the UVB screens and stress in cyanobacteria. Moreover, to gain insight into the entrepreneur side of science, Diogo worked as a junior research associate in an international biotech company, FairJourney Biologics, developing high-affinity antibodies against several carcinogenic targets between 2020 and 2021. Currently, Diogo has enrolled in the International Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology Applied to Health Sciences PhD program developing a joint PhD bridging the Institute for Research & Innovation in Health (i3S) in Porto and the Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG) in Ghent. Within the scope of his project, Diogo intends to uncover novel therapeutic targets to be combined with radiotherapy, by scrutinizing the iron metabolism and the rectal cancer tumour microenvironment.
 

• Iron metabolism in colorectal cancer: a balancing act. Cell Oncol (Dordr). 2023
• Expression of LncRNAs in HPV-induced Carcinogenesis and Cancer Cachexia: A Study in K14-HPV16 Mice. Anticancer Research. 2022 (PMID: 35489755)
• Decellularized Colorectal Cancer Matrices as Bioactive Scaffolds for Studying Tumor-Stroma Interactions. Cancers (Basel). 2022. (PMID: 35053521)
• Differential Incidence of Tongue Base Cancer in Male and Female HPV16-Transgenic Mice: Role of Female Sex Hormone Receptors. Pathogens 2021 (PMID: 34684173)
• HPV16 induces penile intraepithelial neoplasia and squamous cell carcinoma in transgenic mice: first mouse model for HPV-related penile cancer. Journal of Pathology 2020. (PMID: 32488868)
• Ptaquiloside from bracken (Pteridium spp.) promotes oral carcinogenesis initiated by HPV16 in transgenic mice. Food & Function 2020. (PMID: 32222741)
• HPV16 is sufficient to induce squamous cell carcinoma specifically in the tongue base in transgenic mice. Journal of Pathology 2020. (PMID: 31994197)
• Hallmarks of HPV carcinogenesis: the role of E6, E7 and E5 oncoproteins in cellular malignancy” BBA Gene Regulatory Mechanisms 2019. (PMID: 30707946)
• CRISPR-Cas9 Therapies in Experimental Mouse Models of Cancer. Future Oncology 2018 (PMID: 30027767)
   

• Lab address:
  - Laboratory of Experimental Cancer Research, 
  Department of Human Structure and Repair, 
  Campus UZ Gent, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, The Core, ingang 37, 9000 Gent, Belgium 
  - Tumour and Microenvironment Interactions lab
• Diogo Estevao @ Tumour and Microenvironment Interactions laboratory 
• LinkedIn 
• Diogo Estevao is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks