Last Wednesday, March 2, 2021, Portuguese Molecular Biology was orphaned of one of its founding mothers, Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada. Through her pioneering research, the advent of molecular biology in Portugal became closely intertwined with the success of the IGC as a biological research institute.

Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada was initiated to laboratory research at IGC, soon after she concluded her degree in Pharmacy at the University of Porto in 1968, through an internship at the “Centro de Biologia”. By then, the IGC was a multivalent institute where biological research was carried out in the “Centro de Biologia” divided in four Laboratories (Microbiology, Cell Biology, Physiology and Pharmacology), reproducing the classical medical university structure. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada joined Dr. Peres Gomes’ Laboratory of Pharmacology, working under the direct supervision of Dr. Celeste Lechner. This research initiation enabled Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada to become connected with the French molecular biology that was blossoming invigorated by the Nobel of Monod, Jacob and Lwoff. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada joined Dr. Donal Hayes lab at the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique (IBPC) in Paris, where she studied the synthesis of ribosomes and mRNA in the eukaryotic model Tetrahymena. She got her doctoral degree in 1976 from the University Paris VII, and returned to the IGC as an independent scientist. Maintaining an active collaboration with Dr. Hayes she got a “Doctorat d’Etat” from IBPC in 1980.  Studying the molecular mechanisms of stress in the ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis and in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada was a pathfinder of Molecular Biology research in Portugal. In the auspicious 80’s and 90’s, her Molecular Genetics laboratory was a beacon for anyone interested in molecular biology, contributing to casting the IGC as a reference institute in the country. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada lived through the metamorphosis of the IGC circa 1998 from the “Centro de Biologia”, with its hierarchic departamental structure, into the more open and cosmopolitan institute that we know today. Institutional metamorphoses, like those of organisms, are rich in tensions. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada eventually moved on to Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica where she created the Genomics and Stress laboratory that she ran for well over a decade.

During more than 40 years Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada made numerous significant contributions to the molecular biology of several organisms mostly the aforementioned ciliate and yeast, but also a plant (Lupinus albus, the white lupin), a bacteria (Desulfovibrio gigas) and a virus (African Swine fever virus).  Once an independent scientist at IGC, she had the insight that Tetrahymena, the ciliate she gained experience with during her thesis, would be an excellent model to study the structure and function of microtubules, a key component of cilia. Her lab went on to clone and sequence the genes encoding tubulins, the protein building blocks of the microtubules, and to characterise the post-transcriptional regulation of tubulin mRNA during the stress responses of this organism to a variety of environmental challenges. The growing interest in stress responses led the lab to adopt another eukaryotic model organism, the budding yeast S. cerevisiae. Among other important discoveries, Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada’s lab was at the forefront of the identification and characterisation of the Yap family of eight AP-1 like transcription factors involved in yeast stress responses, demonstrating that Yap proteins respond differently to environmental stresses and play distinct functions.

Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada took pride in the fact that her lab pioneered gene sequencing in Portugal. Through her lab, the IGC and Portugal joined the international consortium that determined the complete sequence of S. cerevisiae genome. Sequencing the first genome of an eukaryote was a monumental effort launched by the European Commission that took seven years and hundreds of researchers to reach completion in 1996. At IGC, this was a painstaking task using manual Sanger sequencing methods via those long agarose gels. An automatic sequencer was acquired by the institute but only became functional a couple of years after the S. cerevisiae genome sequence was fully assembled. Less important than the result itself was “laying the basis for new discoveries” and developing the technological means to tackle the more ambitious genome sequencing projects that followed, such as the Human Genome Project, that would change the way molecular biology is done. The S. cerevisiae genome sequencing completed, the next order in the agenda was to clone and characterise genes with unknown functions. Yeast genes with sequence homology to human genes involved in pathologies were of special interest, based on the pragmatic notion that their cellular functions could be easily identified in this model organism.  Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada’s lab discovered a yeast gene encoding a member of the ABC protein superfamily with extensive sequence homology to the ABCD1/ALD gene encoding the adrenoleukodystrophy protein.

Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada’s  Genome and Stress lab at ITQB not only continued to study yeast homeostasis and stress responses regulation but tackled another organism, D. gigas. This is an exceptionally large, sulphate-reducing non-photosynthetic anaerobic bacterium in which phosphorylation is coupled to electron transfer. It is believed to be representative of the most ancient forms of life and has interest for energy conservation pathways and bioremediation. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada’s lab was among the first to generate mutants in this bacterium. Furthermore, in a rather exceptional (for Portugal) partnership between academia and the private sector, the lab sequenced the complete genome of D. gigas in collaboration with StabVida.

The ensemble of Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada’s scientific achievements was recognised internationally at the highest level. She was nominated fellow of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) in 1994,  awarded the “Diplôme d’Honneur” of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) in 2009, and elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2011. In Portugal, she received numerous accolades (too many to list here) that culminated with the award of the “Medalha de Mérito para a Ciência” by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Professor Manuel Heitor, in 2016. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada used her national and international renown to promote Portuguese science and scientists, notably in FEBS and EMBO. 

Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada was a relentless herald of Molecular Biology in Portugal. She taught molecular biology and genetics to undergraduate students in different universities in Lisbon and beyond. For many years, she held a professorship position at the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas  Abel Salazar of the University of Porto, more than 300 Km and several hours by train away from her lab, where she taught Medicine and Biochemistry undergraduate students. She lectured undergraduates at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Her classes were remembered for being research oriented, often in the format of “journal clubs” in which students were asked to discuss recent publications, in disconcerting contrast with traditional classes.  At the IGC, she organised courses on Molecular Biology at the Estudos Avançados, and organised and taught the students of the first structured PhD programme of the IGC, the Gulbenkian PhD Programme in Biology and Medicine, directed by António Coutinho. She touched the life of countless students, who she charmed with her juvenile curiosity. Hundreds of undergraduate, masters and doctoral students gave the first steps in science at Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada’s labs at IGC and ITQB. She graduated 30 doctorates, an impressive round number that she was very proud of. Beyond her contributions to the progress of science perhaps the greatest legacy of Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada will be the people she attracted to and that she educated in Molecular Biology.

Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada valued science above all and was rightfully proud of the role she played in developing Molecular Biology in Portugal. She conveyed this in her autobiographical book: “Quarenta anos de investigação. Na voragem do tempo” (Ed. Húmus).  The book is a first-person narrative of her journey in science from her small birth place, Tadim, in the north of Portugal, to the World. It is written with the candour that characterised Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada. Reading about her journey in her own words, those that never met her discover a powerful and determined woman and scientist, with a exceptional inner strength and drive, who left no one untouched. Those who knew her will read it with the uncanny feeling of listening to her voice, often praising and often making harsh criticisms. Her journey was punctuated with several adversities: the misogyny and narrow mindedness of Guimarães, the northern town where she did the high school, back in the times of the Portuguese dictatorship; the frustration with the Mathematics degree she enrolled in first at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto before quitting and restarting at the Faculty of Pharmacy; leaving her children in Portugal to pursue the dream of doing research at the highest level in Paris; the flood that submerged and ruined her laboratory at the IGC in 1983; departing from IGC, her scientific home of more than two decades, to rebuild her lab at ITQB; and disease. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada lived through this trickle of adversities, each one a hardship that would have deterred anyone less curiosity-driven and less passionate for science.

We live through sad and hard times. Too frequently, we are saddened by the loss a scientist whom we looked up to. The pandemic isolates us and prevents us from getting in touch with our bereaved colleagues. Every loss seems to make it harder, especially when we receive these sad news while struggling to meet grant proposal deadlines to access the meagre national funding for science. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada’s relentless drive through the opportunities and adversities of her life in science, without ever losing her child-like curiosity and demeanour, is an admirable example and an encouragement to try harder and bring forth the best of ourselves.