Alexandra Machado Ferreira Castilho
Dr. Alexandra Machado Ferreira Castilho
Institute of Plant Biotechnology and Cell Biology
Location Muthgasse 18, 1190 Wien
Email alexandra.castilho@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-94353
ORCID: ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4114-7861, opens in new window.
ResearcherId : AAC-8927-2020.
Research Focus
Plant Molecular Farming (PMF) refers to the production of valuable proteins through the use of plant biotechnology. Despite great successes, the expression of recombinant proteins in plants still has some bottlenecks. Protein glycosylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications, and while N-glycan synthesis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is relatively well conserved in eukaryotes, the processing of N-glycans in the Golgi apparatus is kingdom specific and there is great variation in the glycosylation pathway of plants and animals hinders the production of relevant glycoproteins in plants. Glycodesign is a powerful tool for optimizing the glycoprofiles of therapeutic glycoproteins for their effectiveness. Our research aims to develop, optimize and evaluate methods to tailor the structures of glycans to relevant recombinant proteins produced in Nicotiana benthamiana, currently the most suitable host for use in PMF. We use a variety of approaches to genetically manipulate glycosyltransferases (GTs), glycohydrolases (GH), nucleotide sugar converting enzymes, and transporters to control glycan biosynthesis in N. benthamiana. The results of our research can be used to identify individual structures fundamental to glycan-mediated processes and facilitate the development of “biobetter” proteins with tailored glycan profiles that enhance their activities.
Career
- 2018 Principal Investigator at the IPBT, BOKU Vienna Austria Head of Plant Glycoengineering group: https://boku.ac.at/en/dagz/castilho (BOKU University)
- 2010 - 2017 Scientific Coordinator of the Laura Bassi Center PlantBioP (BOKU University)
- 2004 - 2010 Senior Post-Doc at the DAGZ, BOKU Austria. (BOKU University)
- 1999 - 2003 Post-Doc at the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB) Oeiras, Portugal.
- 1990 - 1995 PhD at the John Innes Institute, Norwich, United Kingdom (John Innes Institute)
- 1991 - 1992 Young researcher fellow at the Department of Genetics, ISA, Portugal
- 1990 - 1991 Fellowship (Erasmus) for young Scientists at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Versailles, France.
- 1985 - 1990 5 years under-graduate studies in Applied Plant Biology at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal (Universidade de Lisboa)
Projects
0 Projects found.
Publications
Knowledge Transfer to Society
Media
Presentations
Year: 2011 - Humanization of the plant N-glycosylation pathway for the production of therapeutically relevant proteins (Vortrag)
Autoren: Castilho, A., Gattinger, P., Pabst, M., Grass, J., Kunert, R., Strasser, R., Altmann, F., Steinkellner, H
Event: 21st International Symposium on Glycoconjugates GLYCO 21, 2011
Period: 21.08.2011 - 26.08.2011 | Location: Vienna, Austria | Organizer:
The International Glycoconjugate Organisation | Organizer: Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Universität Wien, BMWFYear: 2011 - The cherry on the cake: Expression of sialylated human Erythropoietin in plants (Poster)
Autoren: J. Jez, A. Castilho, J. Stadlmann, J. Grass, B. Antes, K. Vorauer-Uhl, R. Strasser, F. Altmann, H. Steinkellner
Event: 21st International Symposium on Glycoconjugates GLYCO 21, 2011
Period: 21.08.2011 - 26.08.2011 | Location: Vienna, Austria | Organizer:
The International Glycoconjugate Organisation | Organizer: Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Universität Wien, BMWFYear: 2011 - The cherry on the cake: Expression of sialylated human Erythropoietin in plants (Poster)
Autoren: Jez, J., Castilho, A., Stadlmann, J., Grass, J., Antes, B., Vorauer-Uhl. K., Strasser, R., Altmann, F., Steinkellner, H.
Event: 21st International Symposium on Glycoconjugates GLYCO 21, 2011
Period: 21.08.2011 - 26.08.2011 | Location: Vienna, Austria | Organizer:
The International Glycoconjugate Organisation | Organizer: Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Universität Wien, BMWFYear: 2009 - Glyco-engineering in plants: production of monoclonal antibodies containing homogeneously β1,4-galactosylated human-type N-glycans. (Vortrag)
Autoren: Glössl, J., Strasser, R., Castilho, A., Kunert, R., Altmann, F., Mach, L., Steinkellner, H.
Event: GLYCOBIOLOGY 2009
Period: 12.11.2009 - 15.11.2009 | Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Year: 2009 - Consistent1,4-galactosylation of monoclonal antibodies produced in plants. (Poster)
Autoren: Castilho, A., Strasser, R., Stadlmann, J., Kunert, R., Gattinger, P., Altmann, F., Mach, L., Steinkellner, H
Event: 15th European Carbohydrate Symposium 2009
Period: 19.07.2009 - 24.07.2009 | Location: Vienna, Austria
Year: 2007 - Engineering of the N-Glycosylation Pathway in the Model Plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Poster)
Autoren: Glössl, J., Castilho, A., Schähs, M., Strasser, R., Pabst, M., Leonard, R., Mach, L., Altmann, F., Steinkellner, H.
Event: PSE Congress 2007 - Plants for Human Health in the Post-Genome Era
Period: 26.08.2007 - 29.08.2007 | Location: Helsinki, Finland
Year: 2007 - Engineering of the N-Glycosylation Pathway in the Model Plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Vortrag)
Autoren: Glössl, J., Castilho, A., Schähs, M., Strasser, R., Pabst, M., Leonard, R., Mach, L., Altmann, F., Steinkellner, H.
Event: 19th International Symposium on Glycoconjugates Glyco 19 2007
Period: 15.07.2007 - 20.07.2007 | Location: Cairns, Australia