Sabrina Silva Mendonça - Cheminformatician

Work experience

February 2022 to October 2022

Research scholarship at Natura, mediated by the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil.

Description: Curate and generate QSAR models for mutagenicity

Doctorade degree

April 2021 to May 7 2025

Laboratory for Molecular Modeling and Drug Design (LabMol), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO 74605-170, Brazil.

Thesis: Medicinal Chemistry Strategies in the Discovery of SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitors as Drug Candidates for COVID-19.

Advisor: Profª. Drª. Carolina Horta Andrade

Master degree

April 2019 to April 2021

Laboratory for Molecular Modeling and Drug Design (LabMol), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO 74605-170, Brazil.

Dissertation: Cheminformatics-driven identification of new antiplasmodial hits effective against asexual and sexual stages.

Advisor: Profª. Drª. Carolina Horta Andrade

Professional Bachelors Degree in Biotechnology

March 2014 to September 2019

Institute of Biodiversity and Forests, Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, Santarém, Pará, Brazil.

Grade: 7.8

Virtual screening by QSAR-Machine Learning of macrolides for identifying inhibitors of the TGR protein of Schistosoma mansoni.

Advisor: Profª. Drª. Gabriela Bianchi

Publications

• Sanches, Igor H.; Feitosa, Francisco L.; Cabral, Lemos, Jade M.; Silva-Mendonca, Sabrina; Souza, Ester; Victoria F.; Moreira-Filho, José T.; Gil, Henric; Neves, Bruno J.; Braga, Rodolpho C.; Borba, Joyce V. V. B.; Andrade, Carolina Horta. QSAR-Lit: A No-Code Platform for Predictive QSAR Model Development - From Data Curation to Virtual Screening. Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society, 2025, 36, 8, e-20250063, 1-9. [DOI]
• Feitosa, Francisco L.; Cabral, Victoria F.; Sanches, Igor H.; Silva-Mendonca, Sabrina; Borba, Joyce V. V. B.; Braga, Rodolpho C.; Andrade, Carolina Horta. Cyto-Safe: a machine learning tool for early identification of cytotoxic compounds in drug discovery. Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, 2024, 64 (24), 9056-9062. [DOI]
• Calit, Juliana; Prajapati, Surendra; Benavente, Ernest; Araújo, Jessica; Deng, Bingbing; Miura, Kazutoyo; Annunciato, Yasmin; Moura, Igor; Usui, Miho; Medeiros, Jansen; Andrade, Carolina; Silva-Mendonca, Sabrina; Simeonov, Anton; Eastman, Richard; Long, Carole; Araujo, Maisa; Williamson, Kim; Aguiar, Anna; Bargieri, Daniel Y. Pyrimidine azepine targets the Plasmodium bc1 complex and displays multi-stage antimalarial activity. JACS Au, 2024, 4 (10), 3942-3952. [DOI]
• Borba, Joyce V. B.; Salazar-alvarez, Luis Carlos; Ferreira, Letícia Tiburcio; Silva-Mendonça, Sabrina; Silva, Meryck Felipe Brito Da; Sanches, Igor H.; Clementino, Leandro Da Costa; Magalhães, Marcela Lucas; Rimoldi, Aline; Calit, Juliana; Santana, Sofia; Prudêncio, Miguel; Cravo, Pedro V.; Bargieri, Daniel Y.; Cassiano, Gustavo C.; Costa, Fabio T. M.; Andrade, Carolina Horta. Innovative Multistage ML-QSAR Models for Malaria: From Data to Discovery. ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, v. 15(8), p. 1386-1396, 2024. [DOI]
• Purificação, Aline D.; Silva-Mendonça, Sabrina; Cruz, Luiza V.; Sacramento, Carolina Q.; Temerozo, Jairo R.; Fintelman-rodrigues, Natalia; De Freitas, Caroline Souza; Godoi, Bruna Fleck; Vaidergorn, Miguel Menezes; Leite, Juliana Almeida; Salazar Alvarez, Luis Carlos; Freitas, Murillo V.; Silvac, Meryck F. B.; Martin, Bianca A.; Lopez, Renata F. V.; Neves, Bruno J.; Costa, Fabio T. M.; Souza, Thiago M. L.; Da Silva Emery, Flavio; Andrade, Carolina Horta. Unveiling the Antiviral Capabilities of Targeting Human Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase against SARS-CoV-2. ACS Omega, v. 9, p. 11418-11430, 2024. [DOI]
• Silva-Mendonça, Sabrina; Vitória, Arthur Ricardo De Sousa; Lima, Telma Woerle De; Galvão-filho, Arlindo Rodrigues; Andrade, Carolina Horta. Exploring new horizons: Empowering computer-assisted drug design with few-shot learning. Artificial Intelligence in the Life Sciences, v. 4, p. 100086, 2023. [DOI]
• De Souza, Alana Gomes; Lopes, Iardja Stéfane; Filho, Adriano José Maia Chaves; Cavalcante, Talita Matias Barbosa; Oliveira, João Victor Souza; De Carvalho, Michele Albuquerque Jales; De Lima, Klistenes Alves; Jucá, Paloma Marinho; Mendonça, Sabrina Silva; Mottin, Melina; Andrade, Carolina Horta; De Sousa, Francisca Cléa Florenço; Macedo, Danielle S.; De França Fonteles, Marta Maria. Neuroprotective effects of dimethyl fumarate against depression-like behaviors via astrocytes and microglia modulation in mice: possible involvement of the HCAR2/Nrf2 signaling pathway. Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Archives of Pharmacology, v. 395, p. 1029-1045, 2022. [DOI]
• Lima, Marilia N. N.; Borba, Joyce V. B.; Cassiano, Gustavo C.; Mottin, Melina; Mendonça, Sabrina S.; Silva, Arthur C.; Tomaz, Kaira C. P.; Calit, Juliana; Bargieri, Daniel Y.; Costa, Fabio T. M.; Andrade, Carolina H.. Artificial Intelligence Applied to the Rapid Identification of New Antimalarial Candidates with Dual-Stage Activity. CHEMMEDCHEM (INTERNET), v. 16, p. 1093-1103, 2021. [DOI]

Oral Presentations

• Mendonça, S. S.; Mottin, M.; Jurish, C. D.; Seanego, D.; Puhl, Ana; Lane, Thomas; Urbina, Fabio; Sacramento, Carolina; Mattos, Mayara; Fintelman-Rodrigues Natalia, Freitas, Caroline; Ramos, Paulo; M. L. Souza, Tiago; Ekins, Sean; Makarov, Vadim; Gessner, Richard; Andrade, Carolina. Novel Arbidol derivatives against SARS-CoV-2: A comprehensive approach using computer- and AI-assisted drug design. ACS Spring. 2025. [Annal]
• Mendonça, S. S.; Jurish, C. D.; Seanego, D.; Motta, F. S. N.; Rodriguez, B. S. A.; Junior, G.S. M.; Liao, J.; Sigurdardóttir, S.; Ortiz, M; Sanches, I. H.; Oliveira, F. M.; Mottin, M.; Guido, R. Oliva, G.; Charneau, I. D. M.; Sunnerhagen, P.; Gessner, R.; Andrade, C. H.. “AI-Powered Drug Discovery: Unveiling 3CLpro Inhibitors via Structure- and Ligand-based virtual screening”. 47a Reunião Annual da Sociedade Brasileira de Química. Poços de Caldas, São Paulo, Brasil, 2024. [Annal]
• Mendonça, S. S.; Magalhães, M. L.; Alvarez, L. C. S.; Calit, J. P.; Ferreira, L. T.; Cassiano, G. C.; Moreira-Filho, J. T.; Borba, J. V. B.; Neves, B. J.; Eastman, R. T.; Costa, F., T. M.; Bargieri, D. Y.3; Andrade, C. H. “Cheminformatics-driven identification of new antiplasmodial hits effective against asexual and sexual stages”. 10th Brazilian Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry. 27/09/2022. [Annal]

Poster Presentations

• Mendonça, S. S.; Magalhães, M. L.; Alvarez, L. C. S.; Calit, J. P.; Ferreira, L. T.; Cassiano, G. C.; Moreira-Filho, J. T.; Borba, J. V. B.; Neves, B. J.; Eastman, R. T.; Costa, F. T. M.; Bargieri, D. Y.; Andrade, C. H. Cheminformatics-aided discovery of new chemotypes for multistage activity antimalarials. ACS Publications Symposium: Biological and Medicinal Chemistry. Bonn, Germany. 2023. [Annal]
• Mendonça, S. S.; Borba, J. V. V. B.; Neves, Bruno; Calit, J.; Eastman, R.; Bargieri, D. Y. Andrade, C. H. Machine learning models for predicting the transmission-blocking activity of compounds against Plasmodium sp. Anais da 43ª Reunião Anual Virtual da SBQ. Campinas: Galoá. 2020. [Annal]
• Mendonça, S. S.; Moreira-Filhos, J. T.; Hall, S.; Andrade, C. H.; dos Santos, G. B. Computationally guided drug repositioning: QSAR-based Virtual Screening of Macrolides for Schistosomiasis. 9th Brazilian Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry. ISBN: 978-65-80968-04-6. Vol. 1, 2019 – 111532. Galoá. 2019. [Annal]

Honors and Awards

• Participation certificate: as co-advisor of Francisco Lucas Feitosa de Oliveira, which won the 21º Scientific and Technological Initiation Highlight Award - Category: Technological Initiation / Life Sciences. Feitosa, Francisco L.; Silva-Mendonca, Sabrina; Andrade, Carolina Horta. Cyto-Safe: a machine learning tool for early identification of cytotoxic compounds in drug discovery. Granted by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). 2024.
• 3º Best poster presented: Mendonça, S. S.; Magalhães, M. L.; Alvarez, L. C. S.; Calit, J. P.; Ferreira, L. T.; Cassiano, G. C.; Moreira-Filho, J. T.; Borba, J. V. B.; Neves, B. J.; Eastman, R. T.; Costa, F., T. M.; Bargieri, D. Y.; Andrade, C. H. “Cheminformatics-driven identification of new antiplasmodial hits effective against asexual and sexual stages”. 10th Brazilian Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry. 30-09-2022.
• 2° Best abstract on IX SBPC/GO Award for the Popularization of Science 2022: Vieira da C., L.; Mendonça, S. S.; Vinícius de F., M.; Nonato, M. C.; Andrade, C. H. 2nd place in the IX SBPC/GO Award for the Popularization of Science 2022, in the category Exact And Earth Sciences (includes engineering and agricultural sciences). 16-12-2022.

International visits

November 2022 to March 2024

Department of Life Science Informatics, b-it, LIMES Program Unit Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany.

Description: Explainable AI behavior on machine learning models on cheminformatics.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bajorath.

October 2022 to November 2022

Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3D), University of Cape Town.

Description: Following the scope of the project "CHAMADA 4 BRICS STI COVID-19", funded in Brazil by CNPq, Process: 441038/2020-4, entitled "multidisciplinary and multicenter artificial intelligence-based platform to accelerate the discovery and repositioning of drugs against covid-19."

Supervisor: Dr. Richard Gessner.