Speakers
JONATHAN HOWARD
Director and Group Leader
Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência
Jonathan Howard graduated in Zoology and obtained his PhD in immunology in 1969 at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, both at the University of Oxford (UK). He worked in the University of Pennsylvania (USA) as a post-doctoral fellow, eventually becoming an Adjunct Associate Professor there. In 1975 he moved to the Babraham Institute within the University of Cambridge (UK), eventually becoming Head of the Department of Immunology. In 1994 he was appointed Full Professor at the Institute for Genetics of the University of Cologne (Germany), where he retains a small research laboratory.
During his career Jonathan Howard has had sabbatical stints at Stanford University, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg and in the Medical Research Council laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge. He has served on many Scientific Advisory Boards, including as Chairman at the Centre d'Immunologie Marseille-Luminy and at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen. Jonathan Howard was elected a member of EMBO in 1993 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1995. He has been the Director of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência since 2012.
MARIA M. MOTA
Director and Group Leader
Instituto de Medicina Molecular
Maria Manuel Mota was born in Vila Nova de Gaia (Portugal). She graduated in Biology and did a master's degree in Immunology. She finished her PhD in molecular parasitology in 1998 at University College London (UK) and pursued her post-doctoral research studies at New York University Medical Center (USA) (1999-2001). She became Principal Investigator at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras in 2002 and 3 years later she moved to Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM), where she became Principal Investigator in the Malaria Unit and Professor at the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa.
Maria Mota is the Executive Director at iMM Lisboa since 2014 and has been awarded with several prizes. In 2005 was made Comendadora da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique, received several grants, as the European Science Foundation Young Investigator (2004-2009) and International Research Scholar Howard Hughes Medical Institute (USA) (2005-2010). More recently, in 2013, Maria Mota was awarded Prémio Pessoa, due to her contribution to the development of new treatment strategies and prevention in the malaria field of research.
CARLOS RIBEIRO
Group Leader
Champalimaud Foundation Research Programme
Born in Basel (Switzerland) Carlos Ribeiro studied Bio II at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and performed his diploma under the supervision of Dr. Markus Affolter and Prof. Walter Gehring studying how TGF-beta signaling and HOX transcription factors affect transcription in the Drosophila embryo. After graduating in 1999 he continued in the laboratory of Prof. Affolter for his PhD studies until 2003 where he used 3D time lapse imaging approaches in the living embryo to study the molecular and cellular mechanisms used to sculpt the tubular breathing network of the fruitfly. In 2004 he joined the laboratory of Barry Dickson at the IMP in Vienna (Austria), for his postdoctoral training where he first characterized Robo receptor trafficking in living Drosophila embryos and then became interested in decision making in the adult fly.
Carlos Ribeiro became principal investigator of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme (Portugal) in 2009. His laboratory studies how neuronal systems sense metabolic needs and modify neuronal processes to generate the correct behavioral decisions needed for the survival and reproduction of organisms.
CLÁUDIO M. SOARES
Dean and Group Leader
Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier
Cláudio M. Soares studied Biochemistry at Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal). He the went to Uppsala University (Sweden) to develop the research that lead to his PhD that was presented at Universidade de Lisboa in 1994. In 1994 he joined ITQB NOVA, where he heads the Protein Modelling Laboratory since 1999. His group works on molecular modelling of proteins using computational biophysical methods, and have experience in a number of areas, from basic research in methods, to applications with biotechnological and biomedical interest. A lot of work is centred on redox proteins, but the lab is also doing modelling work in other areas, namely in molecular mechanisms in ABC transporters, haemagglutinin mediated membrane fusion and enzymes in non-aqueous solvents. His group also has extensive collaborations with many experimental groups.
Cláudio M. Soares is is Dean of ITQB NOVA since 2013. He was Vice-Dean of ITQB NOVA from 2005-2008 and 2011-2013. He is a member of the IInternational Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics council, Member of the FEBS Advanced Courses Committee, First Secretary of the General Assembly of the Portuguese Biophysical Society, General Secretary of the General Assembly of the Portuguese Biochemical Society and was Chairman of the Portuguese Biophysical Society (2002-2008).
MÓNICA BETTENCOURT-DIAS
Group Leader
Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência
Mónica Bettencourt-Dias is a Group Leader at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC, Portugal) since 2006, where she studies centriole and cilia biogenesis, evolution and misregulation using a variety of approaches, model organisms and patient samples.
She did her PhD with Jeremy Brockes at University College London (UK), postdoctoral research with David Glover at the University of Cambridge (UK) and a 2-year diploma course on science communication at the Birkbeck College (UK). She is a member of the EMBO Young Investigator Programme and EMBO and her lab has been awarded several grants, including ERC starting and consolidator.
CHRISTA RHINER
Group Leader
Champalimaud Foundation Research Programme
Christa Rhiner received her Master degree in 2002 from the University of Bern (Switzerland), having done her Master project in Adriano Aguzzi's laboratory at the University Hospital in Zurich (Switzerland). Then, she entered the International Neuroscience PhD program of the ETH/University of Zurich (UZH) and joined the lab of Michael O. Hengartner at the Institute of Molecular Life Sciences at UZH for PhD studies on nervous system development and axon guidance in C. elegans (2002-2006). During this time, she also acquired a degree in science communication from the UZH and Institute for Applied Media Studies in Winterthur (Switzerland).
From 2007 to 2010 she was a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Eduardo Moreno at the National Cancer Center (CNIO) in Madrid, where she identified and characterized key genes mediating cell competition in Drosophila and mice. In 2011, Christa became a lecturer and investigator at the IZB in Bern, where she worked on neuronal selection and began to study regenerative neurogenesis in Drosophila. In 2016, she moved to Portugal to start her own group at the Champalimaud Center in Lisbon focusing on stem cell control and regeneration.
EDUARDO MORENO
Group Leader
Champalimaud Foundation Research Programme
Eduardo Moreno was born in Madrid (Spain), where he studied molecular biology. He did his PhD on homeotic genes in the laboratory of Gines Morata at the Molecular Biology Center Severo Ochoa in Madrid. After his PhD he stayed one more year in Gines Morata´s lab to start the molecular and genetic study of cell competition. He then took that project with him to do a postdoc in Zurich (Switzerland) in the laboratory of Konrad Basler.
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In 2005 he started his own lab in Madrid at the Spanish National Cancer Center (CNIO) where his team discovered the existence of fitness fingerprints in the surface of animal cells in the context of research funded by a ERC starting grant. From 2011 to 2016 he was a Professor and group leader at the IZB of the University of Bern (Switzerland), where he was awarded an ERC consolidator grant to study the molecular mechanisms of cell selection based on "fitness fingerprints" during development, cancer, ageing and neurobiology. Since 2016 he is a group leader at the Champalimaud Research Programme.
MIGUEL CASTANHO
Vice-President
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Miguel Castanho was born in Santarém (Portugal) and did his Degree in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon (Portugal). He obtained his PhD in Molecular Biophysics in 1993 at the Technical University of Lisbon and pursued his Post-doctoral research studies at University of Hawaii (USA) and at Rocasolano Institute in Madrid (Spain). Miguel Castanho is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon since 2007, where he was appointed deputy director in 2011.
He has been a Group Leader at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM, Lisboa) since 2008, and his research group is involved in the development of new drugs to combat pain, Alzheimer's disease, some tumors, and viruses such as HIV and dengue.
Since beginning of 2016, Miguel Castanho is the Vice-president of the Board of Directors of Fundação da Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). He was awarded several national and international scientific prizes. He also integrates FEBS Publications Committee which and has also been a member of the Education Committee. He is frequently invited as evaluator of projects by agencies of the European Commission and national financing. In Portugal he has served as an expert in the FCT working groups, Adl (current ANI) and A3ES and has regularly participated in outreach efforts and clarification of scientific material for non-specialized audiences.
CECÍLIA ARRAIANO
Cecília Maria Arraiano is coordinating a Full Professor and Head of the Control of Gene Expression Laboratory at ITQB Nova (Portugal). She received her PhD in genetics in 1989 at the University of Georgia (USA) where she was a Fullbright-Hays international grantee. After a post-doc she returned to Portugal to set up a new laboratory in post-transcriptional control of gene expression. Her principle interests have been ribonucleasesm and the understanding of the RNA processing and degradation mechanisms mainly in microbes. More recent work has moved to other systems, leading to the discovery of a novel eukaryotic RNA degradation pathway.
Cecília Arraiano was a member of the FEBS Advanced Course Committee 2009-2012, and in 2013 acted as Chair of the FEBS Women in Science Working Group. She has received prestigious distinctions including Ambassador of the America Society for Microbiology in Portugal, President of the Portuguese Genetics Society, Member of the Portuguese Academy of Sciences and is an EMBO member.
VERA GONÇALVES
Intellectual Property Consultant
Patentree
Vera Viola Gonçalves started her career in science. After her studies of applied chemistry – biotech specialisation at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia in Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), she took her PhD in biochemistry at ITQB Nova (Portugal) where she worked intensely, for several years, in biochemistry, molecular genetics and microbiology.
Currently she is a patent consultant at Patentree (under trademark patents.pt). Her patent practice includes direct communication with her inventors, drafting biological and life sciences patent applications, prosecution of said patent applications worldwide, patent searching and patent advising.
EDGAR GOMES
Group Leader
Instituto de Medicina Molecular
Edgar Gomes is a group leader at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (Portugal) since 2013. His main research interest is to understand the mechanisms of nuclear positioning in cell function.
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Edgar Gomes did his PhD in Cell Biology with Carlos B. Duarte at Center for Neuroscience (Portugal) and a postdoctoral research with Gregg Gundersen at Columbia University (USA). Edgar Gomes started as team leader in 2007 at University Pierre et Marie Curie (France) before joining iMM in 2013. His lab has been awarded several grants, including ERC consolidator and Proof of concept.
SOFIA RODRIGUES
Executive Director
Maratona da Saúde
Sofia Rodrigues has a degree in Biology and a PhD in developmental biology. During her PhD years, in parallel to the bench work, she was involved in many science communication activities for the general public and frequented a few courses in this area. As soon as the PhD was concluded in 2006, she dedicated her work to science communication and fundraising and developed several innovative strategies to engage the Portuguese society in science, specifically in biomedical research themes. Her choices in this alternative science career opened the way for her to become focused on a specific area: science fundraising.
Sofia Rodrigues is now co-founder and executive director of Maratona da Saúde, an NGO dedicated to create a science based philanthropy culture in Portugal, adapting well-known efficient fundraising strategies to the Portuguese society.
RAQUEL BARROS
Scientist
Hovione
Raquel Barros has degree in Physics Engineering from Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal). During 2006 and 2007, she worked on renewable energies, developing and elaborating solar thermal energy systems and projects. In 2007 Raquel Barros started scientific research in nanotechnologies, particularly in the field of transparent electronics. She received her MSc in Microelectronic Engineering and Nanotechnologies from Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa and in 2014 she finished her Ph.D in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the same University. Her PhD thesis work was devoted to the study of the emerging area of transparent electronics. In 2015, she joined Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Portugal) as a Postdoctoral Researcher within the theme “Time evolution of mechanical load in the central spindle (midzone)”.
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In 2016, Raquel Barros joined Hovione as a Scientist in the Drug Product Development department, providing technical leadership and coordinating projects in product development, by developing and validating particle design and formulation processes, promoting innovation and knowledge development within the company, through conferences, patents and written articles
Group Leader at CR Research