INVITED SPEAKERS

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Public Health & Clinical Research

Bio

Luís Taborda-Barata, MD PhD

Breathing dangerously: how air pollution affects the respiratory system

Luis Taborda-Barata was born in Coimbra, Portugal, and graduated in Medicine at University of Coimbra, in Portugal, in 1987. He worked at Coimbra University Hospital (CUH), as a House Officer. In 1990, he was admitted to the Immunoallergology specialty at CUH. He obtained a Masters’ Degree in Immunology, from the University of Porto, Portugal, in 1993, and did his PhD in Medicine (Clinical Immunology), at Imperial College School of Medicine (1993-1998). He also trained in Allergy and Respiratory Medicine at Royal Brompton Hospital (1993-1996), then worked in Allergology at CUH (1996-1998), and returned to London as a Honorary Senior Registrar (1998-2000). Back in Portugal, he has been Consultant and Head of the Department of Immunoallergology, Cova da Beira University Hospital Centre, Covilhã. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences of University of Beira Interior, and has been Full Professor of Medicine, since 2015. In 2009/2010, he was Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he was involved in clinical research on COPD. His main interests include asthma and COPD, and has coordinated Research Groups in the respiratory field at CICS-UBI Health Sciences Research Centre, and CACB-Clinical Academic Centre of Beiras. He has published more than 150 papers in international journals. He belongs to various scientific societies and international networks, and is a member of the Scientific Council of the National Programme for Respiratory Diseases (General Directorate of Health). He is Vice-President of the Consulting Committee of AICIB- Portuguese Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation, and coordinated the Portuguese branch of the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD). He was a member of the National Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (2021 2024) and is the Head of UBIAir-Clinical & Experimental Lung Centre, Covilhã, and coordinates a Thematic Line at RISE-Health R&D Unit.

Scaling Pulmonary Rehabilitation: Beyond the patient and traditional models

Marques graduated in physiotherapy in 1999 and completed a M.Sc. in 2003. Both degrees in Portugal. She obtained her PhD degree in Respiratory Physiotherapy in 2008 working on a joint project between the School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences and the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Currently A. Marques is a Full Professor at the School of Health Sciences (ESSUA) and a member of the Institute of Biomedicine (iBiMED), University of Aveiro. She coordinates the Lab3R-Respiratory Research and Rehabilitation Laboratory, ESSUA.
Her research interests are to explore how respiratory diseases affect people’s life and develop personalised non-pharmacological interventions (pulmonary rehabilitation, physical activity) based on comprehensive assessments of people with chronic respiratory diseases and their loved ones. Her research is person-centered with strong partnerships across institutions, multidisciplinary teams and people with respiratory diseases and their loved ones, to achieve the maximum level of independence and functioning of each person in the community. A. Marques and her team have received 48 awards/distinctions for the excellence of the work developed in the respiratory field, from the European Respiratory Society, Portuguese Pulmonology Society and Respiratory Patients Associations.
The results from her research have and will continue to contribute to further develop the non-pharmacological management and optimise meaningful care for people living with chronic respiratory diseases.

Bio

Alda Marques, PhD

Omics & Bioinformatics

Bio

Bruno Manadas, PhD

Functional Proteomics in Health and Disease

Bruno Manadas is a Principal Investigator at CNC/CIBB University of Coimbra. He has a degree in biochemistry and a PhD in Cell Biology. He became a full PI at CNC-UC in 2017, leading a team with a background in medicine, psychology, biochemistry, chemistry, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical biotechnology. He has over 130 publications, 3 projects from FCT as PI and 5 as co-PI, PI of a LaCaixa Impulse and co-PI of a European Project. is the head of the Mass Spectrometry node at CNC of the National Mass Spectrometry Network since 2006, is an invited peer-reviewer of over 20 journals, Associated Editor of Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, and Frontiers in Psychiatry, Member of the European Proteomics Association (EuPA) education committee since 2021, and board member of the Portuguese Proteomics Association (Procura). Bruno Manadas was also enrolled in the settlement of the central hospital biobank with his expertise in sample storage methods for large screening approaches. His academic activities also include being responsible for the curricular units of Neurobiology, Biology of Aging, Proteomics, and Molecular Diagnosis for 10 years at the Portuguese Catholic University and responsible for advanced courses at the CNC PhD program (one sponsored by the European ESFRI Instruct network). His major focus has been on elucidating cell biology mechanisms and translational biomarker research using mass spectrometry-based approaches.

Vibrational Spectroscopy and Metabolomics:
A Synergistic Tool for Biomedical Science

Alexandra Nunes is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Medical Sciences, University of Aveiro (UA), and Principal Investigator at the Institute for Biomedicine (iBiMED) – Aveiro. She completed her undergraduate studies in Biochemistry and Food Chemistry at the University of Aveiro in 1996 and obtained her Master's Degree in Natural Products and Food Stuff from the same institution in 2000. She completed her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Aveiro's Chemistry Department between 2000 and 2004. She specializes in metabolic profiling, spectroscopic techniques, and multivariate analysis of spectroscopic signals. Her research focuses on the application of spectroscopic techniques for analyzing complex matrices, using multivariate analysis to interpret spectroscopic signals in biological samples. She primarily applies FTIR spectroscopy as a screening tool to discriminate biological samples of different ages and age-related pathologies, with particular interest in protein aggregation profiles.

WOS Researcher ID G-5457-2014. Scopus Author ID: 57204087960.

Alexandra Nunes, PhD

Biomedical Therapeutics

Bio

Duarte Silva, MSc

Designing Smart Contrast Agents for Enhanced Stroke Imaging

Duarte Silva got his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the Faculty of Science – University of Porto, having, as part of his Master’s dissertation, worked in a project focused on the synthesis and delivery of dendritic nanoparticles for gene therapy in the nanoBiomaterials for Targeted Therapies group in i3S under the supervision of Dr. Victoria Leiro. Since then, the focus of his research has been on the development and application of novel dendritic molecules, having been hired by the same group under a research grant to synthesize pH-sensitive dendrimers for facile mRNA release. In December 2023, he joined a La Caixa Impulse project for the development of a novel dendritic contrast agent. He continues to work in this research area now through an FCT-funded Doctoral Research Scholarship under the supervision of Drs. Victoria Leiro, Antero Abrunhosa and Ana Paula Pêgo.

GoBack: Identifying new regeneration-associated
genes for Spinal Cord Injury Therapy

Sandra I. Vieira is an associated professor at the Department of Medical Sciences of the University of Aveiro, Portugal. She graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Porto (1998) with a final project at Utrecht University. Sandra holds a Ph.D. degree in Biology - Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience from the University of Aveiro (2006). She is currently the Coordinator of the Doctorate in Rehabilitation Sciences and the Head of the Advanced Optical Imaging Facility, of the University of Aveiro. Her current work focuses on various strategies for neuro and osteo regeneration and rehabilitation, from the molecular basis of regeneration, passing through cellular therapy and intelligent biomaterials. Sandra’s is expert in cellular and molecular biology assays, omics analyses and microscopy-based analyses.

Bio

Sandra Vieira, PhD

Molecular & Cellular Mechanisms: Organic Systems

Aging and cell state conversion: a role for lncRNAs and metabolism

Bruno Jesus graduated in Biochemistry at the University of Coimbra (2003) and earned a PhD on Molecular and Cellular Biology at the IGBMC, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg (2008). From 2009 to 2014, he was Junior researcher at CNIO, Madrid, at the Laboratory of Maria Blasco, and from 2014 to 2018 he was a senior researcher at IMM-JLA. Currently he is an assistant professor at the Medical Sciences Department, UA and Principal Investigator at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (iBiMED). His research focus on the biology of aging, and how aging affects cell-state conversion. BBJ received strategic grants from several funding agencies, totaling more than 1.3M€. Since 2022 he was appointed as coordinator of iBiMED.

Bio

Bruno Jesus, PhD

Immunology and Host-Microbe Interactions

Bio

Fátima Macedo, PhD

From Lysosomal Storage Diseases to iNKT cells and back

Fátima Macedo has a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (2006), a Master's degree in Immunology (1999) and a first degree in Biology (1996) all conferred by the University of Porto. Throughout her doctoral and master's studies, she was a visiting student at Harvard University in Boston and Loyola University in Chicago, USA.
Currently, she is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of University of Algarve and a researcher at the Algarve Biomedical Center Research Institute (ABC-Ri) from the same University. Previously she served as Invited Professor at University of Aveiro for 17 years and worked as a researcher at i3S, University of Porto.
Fátima Macedo research focuses on Lipid Immunology, particularly the role of sphingolipids in modulating CD1-restricted T lymphocytes. She investigates how this modulation impacts various Lysosomal Storage Diseases, including sphingolipidoses such as Acid Sphingomyelinase Deficiency, Gaucher disease, and Fabry disease.
She has pioneering work published on the Molecular Genetic and Metabolism Journal, the official journal of the Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders, as well as in The European Journal of Immunology and Nature Immunology. Fatima Macedo's work has received several awards including The Gaucher Generation Award and awards from the Portuguese Society of Metabolic Diseases.

Microbial evolution in the inflamed gut

Ana Sousa did a PhD in Molecular Evolution at the University of Lisbon (2008) and a Postdoc at at Instituto Gulbenkian Ciencia (2008-16), where she studied microbial evolution in several contexts, including adaptation to the cost of antibiotic resistance and adaptation within the mammalian gut.
In 2016, Ana Sousa established her research team at the Institute of Biomedicine (iBiMED), and became an Assistant Professor in 2019.
Currently, her lab is interested in the interplay between the oral microbiota and COPD and the crosstalk between gut microbiota and ageing. She uses large cohorts of patients, as well as animal and cell models, to tackle questions in the interface between clinics, immunology and evolutionary biology. ORCID: 0000-0001-8541-5720

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ana-Sousa-110?ev=hdr_xprf

Bio

Ana Sousa, PhD