Marlene Santos is Coordinating Professor at the School of Health of the Technical University of Porto, Portugal, and a researcher and principal investigator at LAQV-REQUIMTE. She completed her PhD in Biomedicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto in 2016, having previously obtained a Master's degree in Molecular Genetics from the University of Minho (2008) and a degree in Pharmacy from the School of Health of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto (2004). She has taught at the institution since 2006, progressing from Assistant Professor to Adjunct Professor (2016) and Coordinating Professor (from 2023).
Her main research activities addresses Pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine, and molecular mechanisms underlying drug response, particular emphasis on psychiatric and neurological disorders. Her recent work has been on the pharmacogenomics of antidepressant response in major depressive disorder, covering inflammatory, transporter and neuroplasticity pathways and the on the identification of new drug targets for depression and other non-communicable diseases. She also works on neurological drug use and medication use and review. Her teaching activity is concentrated in Pharmacogenomics and Neuropsychopharmacology undergraduated and postgraduate degrees.
She has taken part in several national and international research projects. Including GENDEP09 (Genetics of Depression and Antidepressant Response, from AstraZeneca Foundation), Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FTC) founded projects on electrochemical biosensing for psychiatric disorders. Internationally, she participated on the CYTED project GEnoPsySEn (Development of genosensors for pharmacogenomic targets in the central nervous system), in , and in a Brazilian CNPq-funded project on low-cost portable sensors for SSRI drug detection. She leaded Working Group 1 of the ENOTTA COST Action (European Network on Optimizing Treatment with Therapeutic Antibodies in chronic inflammatory diseases). Currently she is the PI of GEN2CARE, an European founded project (EIT Health), for an education toll for personalised medicine for clinical decision-making.
She is also part of NbN Taskforce, advocation for the system for naming psychiatric (psychotropic) medications, according to heir pharmacology instead of their indication, reflecting current neuroscience on how they act. It is a global collaboration involving five international organizations (ECNP, ACNP, AsCNP, CINP and IUPHAR) set up a taskforce to build current neuroscience into drug nomenclature.
E-MAIL - mes@ess.ipp.pt
ORCID ID - https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5020-5942
CIÊNCIA ID - 8311-B967-31C4
WEB OF SCIENCE RESEARCHER ID - GZN-2124-2022
SCOPUS AUTHOR ID - 57110502000
Selected Publications:
Zemach, S., Zohar, J., Correll, C. U., Stahl, S. M., Drago, F., Goodwin, G. M., Möller, H.-J., Uchida, H., Siafis, S., Santos, M., & Blier, P. (2026). Dose-dependent pharmacological mechanisms within the Neuroscience-based Nomenclature: A new concept to facilitate neuroscience-based prescribing. The Lancet Psychiatry, 13(4), 357–364. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(25)00338-4
Morgenstern, C., Lastres-Becker, I., Demirdöğen, B. C., Costa, V. M., Daiber, A., Foresti, R., Motterlini, R., Kalyoncu, S., Arioz, B. I., Genc, S., Jakubowska, M., Trougakos, I. P., Piechota-Polanczyk, A., Mickael, M., Santos, M., Kensler, T. W., Cuadrado, A., & Copple, I. M. (2024). Biomarkers of NRF2 signalling: Current status and future challenges. Redox Biology, 72, Article 103134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2024.103134
Santos, M., Lima, L., Carvalho, S., Mota-Pereira, J., Pimentel, P., Maia, D., Correia, D., Barroso, M. F., Gomes, S., Cruz, A., & Medeiros, R. (2023). The impact of BDNF, NTRK2, NGFR, CREB1, GSK3B, AKT, MAPK1, MTOR, PTEN, ARC, and SYN1 genetic polymorphisms in antidepressant treatment response phenotypes. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(7), Article 6758. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24076758
Martins, J. P., Santos, M., Martins, A., Felgueiras, M., & Santos, R. (2023). Seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness in persons aged 15–64 years: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Vaccines, 11(8), Article 1322. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11081322
Jakubowska, M., Costa, V. M., Krzeptowski, W., Pužar Dominkuš, P., Santos, M., Demirdöğen, B. C., Genç, Ş., Trougakos, I. P., Kanninen, K. M., Winklhofer-Roob, B. M., Copple, I. M., Cuadrado, A., Dolžan, V., & Morgenstern, C. (2025). Altered NRF2 signalling in systemic redox imbalance: Insights from non-communicable diseases. Redox Biology, 87, Article 103891. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2025.103891
Morais, S. L., Magalhães, J. M. C. S., Domingues, V. F., Delerue-Matos, C., Ramos-Jesus, J., Ferreira-Fernandes, H., Pinto, G. R., Santos, M., & Barroso, M. F. (2023). Development of an electrochemical DNA-based biosensor for the detection of the cardiovascular pharmacogenetic-altering SNP CYP2C9*3. Talanta, 264, Article 124692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2023.124692
