iBB

Raquel Medina dos Santos Cunha will be defending her PhD thesis in Bioengineering (MIT Portugal) at Instituto Superior Técnico, tuesday the 20th November 2018 (10:30 H, room PA3). During the last years, and under the supervision of Cláudia Lobato Silva from SCERG-iBB, Jeffrey Karp from Harvard Medical School and António Fiarresga from Hospital de Santa Marta, Raquel worked on the development of platforms for the production and characterisation of clinical grade stem cell-based therapies with enhanced regenerative potential. The title of her thesis is "Towards the development of potency assays and 3D inflammation models to evaluate the regenerative potential of Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cell (MSC) and MSC-derived products”.

Diogo Silva will be defending his PhD thesis in Bioengineering (Cell Therapies and Regenerative Medicine) at Instituto Superior Técnico, wednesday the 17th October 2018 (9:00 H, room 4.41). During the last years, and under the supervision of Joaquim Cabral from SCERG-iBB and Manuel Abecasis from IPO, Diogo developed new Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) for various types of hematologic cancers and optimized existing CARs that are already in the clinic. The title of his thesis is "Engineering of T-Cells with Chimeric Antigen Receptors as a Therapy for Hematologic Cancers”.

Fátima Pinto will be defending her PhD thesis in Bioengineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, wednesday the 10th October 2018 (15:30 H, room PA3). During the last years, and under the supervision of Luís Fonseca and Dragana Barros from BERG-iBB, Fátima focused her attention on the development and characterization of biodegradable nanocarriers to be incorporated in pharmaceutical, nutraceutical or cosmeceutical formulations for the targeted release of bioactive substances. The title of her thesis is "Design and Characterization of Lipid Nanoparticles for an Effective Topical Administration of Active Compounds”.

Sofia de Oliveira Duarte has defended her Ph D thesis in Biotechnology and Biosciences at Instituto Superior Técnico on the 16th April 2018. During the last years, and under the supervision of Gabriel Monteiro from BERG-IBB and Lígia Rodrigues from University of Minho, Sofia has investigated the possibility of engineering lactic acid bacteria to produce plasmids and proteins. The title of her thesis is "Lactic acid bacteria as cell factories: A synthetic biology approach for plasmid DNA and recombinant protein production”.

Francisco Moreira has just defended his PhD thesis in Bioengineering (MIT Portugal) at Instituto Superior Técnico, wednesday the 12th December 2018 (14:00 H, room PA3). During the last years, and under the supervision of Joaquim Cabral and Cláudia Lobato Silva from SCERG-iBB, Francisco focused on the establishment of a scalable three-dimensional dynamic culture for the expansion of adipose tissue-derived MSC under xeno-free conditions. The title of his thesis is "Scalable Platform for the Expansion of Human Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells Under Dynamic Conditions”.

Rúben Soares will be defending his PhD thesis in Biotechnology and Biosciences at Instituto Superior Técnico, monday the 15th October 2018 (10:00 H, room PA3). During the last years, and under the supervision of Profs. João Pedro Conde from INESC-MN and Raquel Barros from BERG-iBB, Rúben worked on the development of several miniaturized modules (analyte preparation, immunodetection, optical transduction and portable eçlectronics) of a portable point-of-need mycotoxin screening chip. The title of his thesis is "Development of integrated microfluidic mycotoxin screening chip for point-of-need food safety applications”.

Miriam Sousa will be defending her PhD thesis in Biotechnology and Biosciences at Instituto Superior Técnico, wednesday the 19th October 2018 (14:00 H, room PA3). During the last years, and under the supervision of Frederico Ferreira from SCERG-iBB, Miriam developed nanofiber scaffolds for the cultivation of neural stem cells. The title of her thesis is "Ex-Vivo Culture of Neural Stem Cells in Nanofiber Scaffolds: Cellular Organization and Dynamic Systems”.