Curriculum Vitae
Professional and Academic Career
2017-present: Associate principal investigator at the Champalimaud Foundation Neuroscience Programme at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
2011-2017: Assistant principal investigator at the Champalimaud Foundation Neuroscience Programme at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
2009-2011: Assistant principal investigator at the Champalimaud Foundation Neuroscience Programme at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal
2004-2009: Postdoctoral fellow at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) and Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
2003-2004: Postdoctoral fellow at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland
1999-2003: PhD thesis at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland
1997-1999: Diploma thesis at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland
1994-1999: Diploma studies in biology II at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland
Honours & Awards
2019-present: Janelia visiting scientist
2018: Elected chair of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence Alumni
2018-2021: Award of a “La Caixa” grant
2017-2021: Award of a special grant from the Kavli Foundation to set up a research network to understand how the microbiome affects the brain and behavior
2014-2018: Selected as FENS-Kavli Scholar - Founding member, board member of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence
2012-2018: Award of multiple FCT – Portuguese Research Council Grants
2012-2016: Award of a Human Frontiers Science Program Grant
2006-2009: Award of a Swiss National Science Foundation, Advanced Scientist Fellowship
2005: Award of a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship – Turned down in favor of the Swiss National Science Foundation, Advanced Scientist Fellowship
2004-2006: Award of an EMBO long term fellowship
2003: Graduation as “Dr. phil.” with summa cum laude
2001 and 2003: Award of scholarships from the Josef and Olga Tomcsik-Foundation
Administrative & Organisational Experience
2019-present: Scientific coordinator of the Champalimaud Research scientific platforms
2019-present: Member of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme faculty council
2018-present: Chair of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence Alumni
2019-2020: Member of the Champalimaud Research Education Committee
2018-2020: Programme Committee Member for the FENS Forum 2020, Glasgow, UK
2019: Chair of the “Science and Innovation congress Switzerland-Portugal 2019” celebrating 100 years of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal
2017-2018: Programme Committee Member for the FENS Forum 2018, Berlin, Germany
2017: Co-chair of the Champalimaud Research Symposium 2017, Lisbon Portugal
2017: Local organizer of the 17th Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Awardees Meeting, Lisbon, Portugal
2016: Chair of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Symposium, Lisbon, Portugal
2014-2018: Founding member and board member of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence
Research Interests
During his career, Carlos has focused on crossing discipline boundaries to discover and characterize conserved mechanisms regulating complex neuronal, nutritional, physiological, and developmental processes at the level of the whole animal. He wants to understand how animals decide what to eat and how these decisions affect the fitness of the animal. To achieve a mechanistic, integrated, whole-animal understanding of nutritional decision-making they work at the interface of behavior, metabolism, microbiome, and physiology in the adult Drosophila melanogaster. More specifically they survey and manipulate specific neuronal circuits to understand how they control foraging. They use different neurogenetic and genomics approaches to identify the molecular mechanisms allowing the brain to sense internal states and alter neurons guiding feeding decisions. They use metabolomics and bacterial genetics to understand how specific gut microbes alter food choice.
Selected Publications
Münch, D., Ezra-Nevo†, G., Francisco, A.P. †, Tastekin, I. †, and Ribeiro, C. * (2020). Nutrient homeostasis — translating internal states to behavior. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 60, 67–75.
Moreira, J-M†, Itskov, P.M. †, Goldschmidt, D. †, Baltazar, C, Steck, K., Tastekin, I., Walker, S.J., Ribero C.* (2019) optoPAD, a novel closed-loop optogenetic feeding behavior analysis system, eLife 485110 –eLife. 8:e43924 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.43924
Steck, K. †, Walker, S.J. †, Itskov, P.M., Modesto Baltazar, C., Ribero C.* (2018) Internal amino acid state modulates yeast taste neurons to support protein homeostasis in Drosophila, eLife, 7. e31625. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.31625
Leitão-Gonçalves, R. †, Francisco, A. P. †, Carvalho-Santos, Z. †, Fioreze, G. T., Anjos, M., Baltazar, C., Elias, A.P., Itskov, P.M., Piper, M. D., Ribero C.* (2017), Commensal bacteria control food choice behavior and reproduction by buffering the effect of essential amino acids availability, PLoS Biology, 15(4): e2000862.
Piper, M.D.W. †*, Soultoukis, G.A. †, Blanc, E., Mesaros, A., Herbert, S.L., He, X., Juricic, P., Salmonowicz, H., Yang, M., Simpson, S.J., Ribero, C., Partridge, L. * (2017), Exome matching: a novel in silico approach to optimise dietary amino acid balance for growth and reproduction, Cell Metabolism, 25,610-621
Corrales-Carvajal, V.M., Faisal, A.A., Ribero C.* (2016) Internal states drive nutrient homeostasis by modulating exploration-exploitation trade-off. eLife, 5:e19920 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.19920
Walker, S.J., Corrales-Carvajal, V.M., Ribero, C.* (2015) Postmating circuitry modulates salt taste processing to increase reproductive output in Drosophila. Current Biology, 25(20), 2621-2630
Itskov, P.M., Moreira, J-M, Vinnik, E., Lopes, G., Safarik, S., Dickinson, M.H., Ribeiro C.* (2014) Automated monitoring and quantitative analysis of feeding behavior in Drosophila., Nature Communications, 5:4560
Ribeiro, C.* and Dickson, B.J. (2010). Sex peptide receptor and neuronal TOR/S6K signaling modulate value-based feeding decisions in Drosophila, Current Biology, 20(11), 1000-1005.
Yapici, N.†, Kim, Y.-J. †, Ribeiro, C., Dickson, B.J.* (2008). A receptor that mediates the post-mating switch in Drosophila reproductive behaviour. Nature, 451(7174):33-7.
