Cristiano Pedroso Roussado

My main research interest covers the field of microbiology.

Currently, I am an Early-Stage Researcher in University of Brighton and my PhD focus on the human gut mycobiome and its relationship with human longevity. In my project, I will explore the nanopore sequencing technology to seek for longevity signatures related to the human gut mycobiome. My PhD project is supervised by Dr Joao Inacio Silva, Dr Lucas Bowler, and Dr Fergus Guppy. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 801604

For the last 20 years most studies about the human microbiome reported findings only for the bacterial part. These studies assumed that the fungal component of the human gut can be neglected. However, recent studies have highlighted that the gut mycobiome is much more diverse and abundant than previously thought, and there is increasing evidence of significant roles that fungi play in host homeostasis, and of their interactions with gut bacteria.

This work will increase the knowledge about the human gut microbiome and it will show how the fungal component contribute to the human ageing process.

I graduated in Microbiology in 2015 (BSc Developmental and Evolutionary Biology and MSc Microbiology - University of Lisbon). My thesis research focused on the emergent pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae in neonatal infections. Our findings were published (Martins, E. R., Pedroso-Roussado, C., Melo-Cristino, J., Ramirez, M., Oliveira, H., Vaz, T., ... & Silva, M. F. (2017). Streptococcus agalactiae causing neonatal infections in Portugal (2005–2015): diversification and emergence of a CC17/PI-2b multidrug resistant sublineage. Frontiers in microbiology, 8, 499.) and showed that the stability and dominance of Clonal Complex 17 among neonatal invasive infections in the past decades indicates that it is extremely well adapted to its niche; however emerging resistance in this genetic background may have significant implications for the prevention and management of Group B Streptococcal disease.

After my graduation I was employed in the Portuguese company Mendes Gonçalves SA until 2019, when I started my PhD in University of Brighton. During my industrial experience, my research was developed in a partnership with Dr Rogerio Tenreiro from University of Lisbon and focused the population dynamics of acetic acid fermentation. I explored a culture-dependent and -independent approach to study vinegar production, covering all stages of the process, since raw materials' microbial colonization until the stability of the fermentor microbiota in a semi-continuous fed-batch fashion.

My roles in the company were: Researcher (2015-2016), Project Manager (2016-2017), and Innovation Project Manager (2017-2019). I supervisioned 3 MSc students and 3 international internship students in academia-industry interface. Also during this period I enrolled in a 1-year postgraduation about Design Thinking & Prototyping in IADE (European University of Lisbon).