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Rita Carapito holds a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and a Master's degree in Biotechnology from the University of Beira Interior (Covilhã, Portugal). She recently completed her Ph.D. in Biochemistry with distinction, supported by a doctoral fellowship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Her research was conducted at the Health Sciences Research Centre (CICS-UBI) in Covilhã, in collaboration with CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials (Aveiro, Portugal) and Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy). During her Ph.D., she actively contributed to the scientific community as a member of the CICS-UBI doctoral student committee and as part of the organizing team for the "IV International Congress in Health Sciences Research: Towards Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Challenges from Research to Clinics". Rita has participated in several national and international conferences, where she presented her research work and was recognized with awards for her scientific contributions. Rita has gained extensive laboratory experience through her work in multidisciplinary research teams and visiting periods at the University of Aveiro and Politecnico di Milano. She also demonstrated strong mentoring and organizational skills by supervising Bachelor’s and Master’s students and managing the Preparative Chromatography Laboratory. Her technical expertise includes nucleic acid purification, with a focus on continuous-mode chromatography. Currently, she is developing an integrative biomanufacturing process for the biopharmaceutical pre-miRNA-29b, covering both upstream and downstream process development.
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Identification

Personal identification

Full name
Ana Rita Mugeiro Carapito
Date of birth
1996/05/08
Gender
Female

Citation names

  • Carapito, R.

Author identifiers

Ciência ID
8E11-013D-1419
ORCID iD
0000-0003-1869-105X

Email addresses

  • rita.carapito@ubi.pt (Professional)
  • rita.carapito@fcsaude.ubi.pt (Professional)
  • ritacarapito@gmail.com (Personal)

Websites

Knowledge fields

  • Medical and Health Sciences - Medical Biotechnology - Health-Related Biotechnology

Languages

Language Speaking Reading Writing Listening Peer-review
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
English Upper intermediate (B2) Advanced (C1) Upper intermediate (B2) Advanced (C1) Upper intermediate (B2)
Spanish; Castilian Intermediate (B1) Intermediate (B1) Elementary (A2) Intermediate (B1) Intermediate (B1)
Education
Degree Classification
2021/04/01 - 2025/02/28
Concluded
 Bioquímica (Doutoramento)
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
 Aprovado com Distinção
2017/09/11 - 2019/12/04
Concluded
 Biotecnologia (Mestrado)
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
"Ionic Liquids for the Purification and Stabilization of Nucleic Acids" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
 17
2014/09/15 - 2017/07/14
Concluded
 Bioquímica (Licenciatura)
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
 14
Affiliation

Teaching in Higher Education

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2023/09 - 2024/01 Tutor (University Teacher) Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
2021/09 - 2022/02 Tutor (University Teacher) Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
2021/02 - 2021/06 Tutor (University Teacher) Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal

Positions / Appointments

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2020/08 - 2021/02 Técnico Analista Químico Laboratórios Basi - Indústria Farmacêutica SA, Portugal

Others

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2021/04 - 2025/04 Bolseira de Doutoramento Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
Universidade da Beira Interior Centro de Investigação em Ciências da Saúde, Portugal
Projects

Grant

Designation Funders
2021/03/01 - 2025/02/28 Innovative continuous mode purification of pre-miR-29b biopharmaceuticals from Rhodovulum sulfidophilum extract
10.54499/2020.07980.BD
PhD Student Fellow
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal

Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal

Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
Outputs

Publications

Book chapter
  1. Carapito, R.; Valente, Joana F. A.; Queiroz, João A.; Sousa, Fani. "Arginine-Affinity Chromatography for Nucleic Acid (DNA and RNA) Isolation". In Methods in Molecular Biology, 135-144. Springer US, 2022.
    10.1007/978-1-0716-2176-9_10
Conference poster
  1. Bento. J.; Carapito, R.; Sousa. F.. "Recombinant pre-miRNA-29b: Extracellular production in Rhodovulum sulfidophilum and purification". Paper presented in XIX Annual CICS-UBI Symposium 2024, 2024.
  2. Carapito, R.; Almeida, P.; Pereira, M. M.; Freire, M. G.; Sousa, F.. "Computer-aided Design of Affinity Ligands for RNA purification using Molecular Docking.". Paper presented in Microbiotec 2023, 2023.
  3. Riscado, M.; Carapito, R.; Sousa, F.. "RNA recovery and concentration from Rhodovulum sulfidophilum extracellular medium.". Paper presented in III International Congress in Health Sciences Research: Towards Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Trends in Aging and Cancer 2023, 2023.
  4. Carapito, R.; Bernardo, S. C.,; Sousa, F.. "Affinity ligands for RNA purification.". Paper presented in Biopartitioning & Purification Conference 2022, 2022.
  5. Carapito, R.; Bernardo, S. B.; Neves, M. C.; Freire, M. G.; Sousa, F.. "RNA purification using novel imidazolium-based chromatographic support". Paper presented in XVI Annual CICS-UBI Symposium 2021, 2021.
Encyclopedia entry
  1. Baptista, Bruno; Carapito, R.; Laroui, Nabila; Chantal, PICHON; Sousa, Fani. "MRNA Therapies". In Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia - MDPI, 2021. https://encyclopedia.pub/18933.
    Published
Journal article
  1. Almeida, Paulo R.; Carapito, Rita; Freire, Mara G.; Pereira, Matheus M.; Sousa, Fani. "Perspective on Molecular Docking Tools to Identify Novel Ligands for Nucleic Acid Biorecognition". (2025):
    Submitted
  2. Carapito, Rita; Almeida, Paulo R.; Freire, Mara G.; Pereira, Matheus M.; Sousa, Fani. "Screening of oligo-based ligands targeting pre-miRNA-29b using molecular docking tools". (2025):
    Submitted
  3. Carapito, Rita; Bento, José; Spochioni, Mattia; Freire, Mara G.; Sousa, Fani. "Capto Q ImpRes support for pre-miRNA-29b selective purification". (2025):
    Submitted
  4. Riscado, Micaela; Carapito, R.; Maia, Cláudio J.; Pichon, Chantal; Freire, Mara G.; Sponchioni, Mattia; Sousa, Fani. "A new approach for extracellular RNA recovery from Rhodovulum sulfidophilum". Analytical Biochemistry 696 (2025): 115681. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ab.2024.115681.
    10.1016/j.ab.2024.115681
  5. Carapito, Rita; Bernardo, Sandra C.; Pereira, Matheus M.; Neves, Márcia C.; Freire, Mara G.; Sousa, Fani. "Multimodal ionic liquid-based chromatographic supports for an effective RNA purification". Separation and Purification Technology 315 (2023): 123676. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2023.123676.
    Published • 10.1016/j.seppur.2023.123676
  6. Bernardo, Sandra C.; Carapito, Rita; Neves, Márcia C.; Freire, Mara G.; Sousa, Fani. "Supported Ionic Liquids Used as Chromatographic Matrices in Bioseparation - An Overview". Molecules 27 5 (2022): 1618. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules27051618.
    Published • 10.3390/molecules27051618
  7. Baptista, Bruno; Carapito, Rita; Laroui, Nabila; Pichon, Chantal; Sousa, Fani. "mRNA, a Revolution in Biomedicine". Pharmaceutics 13 12 (2021): 2090. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics13122090.
    Published • 10.3390/pharmaceutics13122090
Activities

Oral presentation

Presentation title Event name
Host (Event location)
2023/07 Molecular docking as screening method of affinity ligands for pre-miRNA-29b purification. XVIII Anual CICS-UBI Symposium 2023
Universidade da Beira Interior (Covilhã, Portugal)
2023/06 Molecular docking of customized oligonucleotides as affinity ligands for pre-miRNA-29b purification. Affinity 2023
Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (Lisboa, Portugal)
2023/02 Ionic Liquid-based chromatographic support for RNA purification: A single step process. III International Congress in Health Sciences Research: Towards Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Trends in Aging and Cancer 2023
Universidade da Beira Interior (Covilhã, Portugal)
2022/09 RNA purification using novel imidazolium-based chromatographic support. Biopartitioning & Purification Conference 2022
Universidade de Aveiro (Aveiro, Portugal)
2022/06 Ionic liquid-based chromatographic supports for RNA purification. PATh/IL2BioPro/mVACCIL Workshop
Universidade de Aveiro (Aveiro, Portugal)
2021/05 Purification of RNAs using novel Ionic-Liquid-based chromatographic supports
Virtual
2019/07 Ionic Liquids-Based Supports For The Purification Of RNA XIV Annual CICS-UBI Symposium
CICS-UBI - Centro de Investigação em Ciências da Saúde (Covilhã, Portugal)

Supervision

Thesis Title
Role 		Degree Subject (Type)
Institution / Organization
2025/01 - 2025/06 Funcionalização de matrizes cromatográficas para purificação específica de RNA.
Supervisor of Rita Paixão
 Projeto em Biotecnologia (Degree)
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
2023/09/01 - 2024/11 Recombinant pre-miRNA-29b: Extracellular production and purification
Co-supervisor of José Bento
 Mestrado em Biotecnologia
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal

Event organisation

Event name
Type of event (Role) 		Institution / Organization
2021/09 - Current IV International Congress on Health Sciences Research: Towards Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Challenges from Research to Clinics (2023/02/13 - 2023/02/15)
Congress (Member of the Organising Committee)
 Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
2023/02/13 - 2023/02/15 IV International Congress in Health Sciences Research: Towards Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Challenges from Research to Clinics (2023/02/13 - 2023/02/15)
Congress (Member of the Organising Committee)
 Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal

Mentoring / Tutoring

Topic Student name
2022/09/01 - 2023/08/01 Molecular docking tools for the screening of affinity ligands for pre-miRNA-29b purification Paulo Almeida
2021/09/01 - 2022/11/01 Purification of pre-miRNA-29 with ionic liquids-based supports Sérgio Nunes

Scientific expedition

Activity description Institution / Organization
2024/02 - 2024/05 Desenvolvimento de sistemas de perfusão para crescimento bacteriano de Rhodovulum sulfidophilum. Desenvolvimento de processos de purificação em modo contínuo de pre-miRNA-29b como biofármaco. Politecnico di Milano, Italy
2018/11 - 2019/03 Síntese de matrizes cromatográficas funcionalizadas com Líquidos Iónicos. Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal
Distinctions

Award

2023 Best Oral Presentation
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
2021 Best Poster Communication
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
2019 Best Short Communication
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal