Programa de Pós-Graduação em Bioquímica – Graduate Program in Biochemistry

Lab de Bem

Prof. de Bem holds an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy and Biochemistry from the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from UFSC and a doctoral degree in Toxicological Biochemistry from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, RS (UFSM). She is currently an associate professor in the Institute of Biological Sciences at the Universidade de Brasília (UnB), but she worked in the PPGBQA/UFSC in the 2017-2020 quadrennium.

“Her research is dedicated to: i) the biochemistry and pharmacology of selenium compounds and; ii) the study of the interrelationships between metabolic disorders such as hypercholesterolemia and obesity and the involvement of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease”

Courses in the PPGBQA:
a) BQA410010 – Cholesterol metabolism and neurodegenerative diseases

Ongoing projects:

a) Obesity as a risk factor for complications of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
b) Study of the neurobiological mechanisms that associate obesity as a risk factor to cognitive disorders and depression.
c) Metabolic derangements and brain metabolic control underlying cognitive decline.

Main publications:

Mitochondrial pyruvate carrier as a key regulator of fever and neuroinflammation. Brain Behavior and Immunity, v. 92, p. 90-101, 2021.

Animal Models of Metabolic Disorders in the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases: An Overview. Frontiers in Neuroscience, v. 14, p. 14:604150, 2021.

High Cholesterol Diet Exacerbates Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption in LDLr-/- Mice: Impact on Cognitive Function. Journal of Alzheimer Disease, v. 78, p. 97-115, 2020.

Impaired adult hippocampal neurogenesis in a mouse model of familial hypercholesterolemia: A role for the LDL receptor and cholesterol metabolism in adult neural precursor cells. Molecular Metabolism, v. 30, p. 1-15, 2019.