Maria Manuel Mota facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Maria Manuel Mota
Born	Vila Nova de Gaia
Nationality	Portuguese
Alma mater	University College of London
Scientific career
Fields	Malaria Host-Pathogen Interactions
Institutions	NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, United States Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal Instituo de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Portugal
Thesis	"Sequestration and the infected-erythrocyte surface in Plasmodium chabaudi malaria infection" (1999)

Maria Manuel Mota is a scientist from Portugal who studies malaria. She is also the leader of a big research center in Lisbon called the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes.

Maria Mota's Early Life and Studies

Maria Mota was born in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. She loved science from a young age. In 1992, she finished her first university degree in Biology. Two years later, in 1994, she earned a master's degree in immunology from the University of Porto.

She then moved to London, England, to continue her studies. In 1998, she received her PhD in molecular parasitology from University College London. This means she became an expert in studying tiny parasites at a very detailed level.

Maria Mota's Career Journey

After finishing her PhD, Maria Mota moved to the United States. There, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the New York University Medical Center. This is a special job where new doctors and scientists get more training and do research.

In 2002, Maria Mota returned to Portugal. She started her very own research group at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Oeiras, Portugal. A research group is a team of scientists working together on specific projects.

By 2005, she became a professor at the University of Lisbon. Since 2014, Maria Mota has been the executive director of the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM) in Lisbon. She still leads her research group there, focusing on the biology of malaria.

In 2016, Maria Mota was chosen to be a member of EMBO. This is a big honor for scientists in Europe. She also works as a visiting professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the United States.

Besides her research, Maria Mota also helped start an organization in Portugal called Associação Viver a Ciência. This group helps teach people about science.

What Maria Mota Researches

Maria Mota spends her career studying the tiny details of how malaria infections work. She especially looks at how the malaria parasite interacts with the body it infects. This is called "host-pathogen interactions." Even though she studies things at a molecular level, her research also connects to bigger things that affect infection, like what someone eats or their daily sleep-wake cycles.

How Malaria Enters the Liver

Maria Mota led the first study that showed something amazing about malaria parasites. When these parasites first enter the liver, they don't just pick the first liver cell they see. Instead, they travel through many liver cells before finding one they like. Once they find the right cell, they settle down and start to multiply. This discovery happened by chance during a conversation between Maria Mota and another scientist, Ana Rodriguez.

The Liver Stage of Malaria

The liver stage of malaria is often forgotten, but it's very important. It's the first step of the infection after a mosquito bite. For a long time, scientists wondered why the body's immune system doesn't fight off malaria well at this stage.

Maria Mota was part of a study that found one reason: certain immune cells in the liver, called Dendritic cells, are held back. These cells usually help activate other immune cells, called T cells, to fight the infection. However, Maria Mota later showed that the liver does have an active innate immune system response, which is the body's first line of defense.

Her research also found that malaria cells protect themselves from being destroyed by liver cells. They do this by attaching to a special protein called LC3. This discovery could help scientists find new ways to create medicines for malaria.

How the Body Fights New Infections

Maria Mota's research group also discovered something interesting: if someone already has malaria in their blood, it can stop a new malaria infection from starting in the liver. This happens because of a protein called hepcidin. When someone has malaria, their body makes more hepcidin. This protein then takes iron away from liver cells, which starves any new malaria parasites trying to start an infection. Iron is a very important nutrient for the parasites to grow.

Malaria and Nutrition

In 2017, Maria Mota's team published research showing that malaria parasites can actually sense how much food their host (the infected person or animal) is getting. They can then change how fast they grow based on this.

For example, when laboratory mice ate 30% fewer calories, the malaria parasites in their blood grew slower. The scientists found a specific protein in the malaria parasite, called KIN, that helps it sense the host's food status. When they removed this KIN protein from the parasites, they no longer reacted to the host's calorie restriction.

These findings match what doctors have seen in people. Sometimes, malaria infections get worse after malnourished patients go to the hospital and start eating better. This research helps us understand why.

Awards and Honors

Maria Mota has received many awards for her important work:

• In 2003, she received a Young Investigator Award from EMBO.
• In 2004, she received more funding from a European Science Foundation Young Investigator award.
• In 2005, she was given a special national honor in Portugal called Commander of the Order of Prince Henry.
• In 2013, she won the Prémio Pessoa Prize. This is a very important award given to Portuguese citizens who have made big contributions to arts or sciences. Maria Mota was one of the youngest people ever to receive it.
• In November 2017, she was awarded the Pfizer Prize for her work on malaria.
• In November 2018, she received the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur prize, which came with 150,000 euros to support her research.

See also

In Spanish: Maria Manuel Mota para niños