Speakers

Alexandre Quintanilha spent the first 25 years in southern Africa, where he graduated, the next 20 years in the Bay Area of California and the last 30 years in Portugal. He has had the good fortune to lead numerous research groups and to live with immensely inspiring people. He got his PhD in theoretical physics, studied oxidative stress in living beings and how we deal with risk. He created and helped to create research centers and institutes and different courses of study at the Universities of Berkeley and Porto and at the LBNL, always multidisciplinary. As a parliamentarian, he contributed to a knowledge-based policy.

Ana Rita Lado Ribeiro is a Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Processes - Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM/FEUP). Her research activities focus on the development of methods for the analysis of contaminants of emerging concern in the environment; the study of the removal of these contaminants from water/wastewater through biological treatments and advanced oxidation processes; and the identification of metabolites (biodegradation) and reaction by-products, among others. She is currently principal investigator of the ERA-ARE project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC).

António Jacinto is Director of NIMSB - NOVA Institute for Medical Systems Biology and Principal Investigator at NOVA Medical School, NOVA University Lisbon. His research activity is based on the use of systems biology approaches to study the role of cellular metabolism in tissue regeneration and the pathological consequences of its deregulation, particularly in the case of oncological diseases. The ultimate goal is to obtain new knowledge about human physiology and disease mechanisms, which can lead to new diagnostic methods and innovative therapeutic approaches.

Célia M. Manaia is an associate professor at the School of Biotechnology of the Portuguese Catholic University. Her teaching and research activities focus on microbiology and genetics. In recent decades, she has dedicated herself to the study of antibiotic resistance and its spread in the environment, mainly through the urban water cycle. Her research activities combine interests in bacterial systematics and ecology at the human-environment interface, with a particular focus on clinically relevant environmental bacteria. He is currently president of the Ethics Committee for Technologies, Social Sciences and Humanities at UCP, vice-president of the Portuguese Microbiology Society, vice-president of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes and a member of editorial boards.

Fausto Lopo de Carvalho is Finance and Operations Director of the João Lobo Antunes Institute of Molecular Medicine and Operations Director and Member of the Executive Board of the Gulbenkian Institute of Molecular Medicine (a private foundation created in 2023 with the aim of merging iMM and iGC into a new organization). Fausto Lopo de Carvalho joined iMM in June 2017 from iQVIA, a multinational consulting and data intelligence company. He was responsible for overhauling iMM's management following a 360º view of the overall science management process at iMM. As well as overseeing the organization's annual budget, he was also responsible for bringing together six teams - Funding Office, Project Management, Accounting, Procurement, Legal and Infrastructure - with the aim of aligning methodologies and implementing a knowledge-learning continuum at all stages of the process. It has been very active in defending science in Portugal and, among its contributions to the wider panorama, the most relevant was a study produced to show the negative impact of VAT on science-related purchases within the scope of research projects.

Helena Canhão is a Full Professor of Medicine, Coordinator of the Comprehensive Health Research Center (CHRC) and the REAL Associated Laboratory. A specialist physician and senior consultant in rheumatology, she is Director of the Rheumatology Unit at ULS S. José - Hospital Santo Antonio dos Capuchos, Lisbon. She is President of the Council of Medical Schools (CEMP). President of the Advisory Board of AICIB and President of the Advisory Board of the Value for Health Collaborative Laboratory.

Henrique Barros is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, President of the Institute of Public Health at the University of Porto and President of ASPHER. He coordinates the Epidemiology Research Unit and the Associated Laboratory for Integrative and Translational Research in Population Health (ITR).

Henrique Cyrne Carvalho graduated in Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Porto (ICBAS-UP) in June 1983. Between 1984 and 1989, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Medical Association. Between 1985 and 1986, he began his academic career as a Junior Assistant at ICBAS-UP, becoming an Invited Assistant in 1990. Subsequently, he began an internship in Interventional Cardiology at the São João Hospital in Porto. Two years later, he became an Assistant Professor of Cardiology and in the same year obtained his degree in Cardiology, also from ICBAS-UP. In 1993, he was awarded a scholarship from the Portuguese Society of Cardiology (SPC) and went to Toulouse for a one-year internship in Interventional Cardiology at the "Unité de Cardiologie Interventionnelle" at Clinique Pasteur. In 1994, he became Director of the Interventional Cardiology Laboratory at Hospital de Santo António (Porto). He was elected twice to the board of the Interventional Cardiology Working Group (1995, 1997) and to the SPC Board (2000, 2001). In 2000, he obtained his Doctorate in Medicine from ICBAS-UP and was Chairman of the Pedagogical Committee of the Medicine Course between 2002 and 2013. In 2006, he was appointed by the Ministry of Health as an advisor to the National Coordinator for Cardiovascular Diseases. In 2009, he obtained his Cardiovascular Intervention subspecialty. In 2010, he became a member of the Scientific Committee of the Medicine Course. Four years later, he obtained his Habilitation in Medical Sciences at ICBASUP, and was elected to the Council of Representatives and the Scientific Council (2014-2018). In 2015, he became an Invited Associate Professor and, in 2016, he was appointed Director of the Medicine Course and became a Senior Cardiologist. Since 2017, he has been a Full Professor and a member of the Multidisciplinary Research Unit in Biomedicine (UMIB). From December 2020 to 2022, he was President of the Council of Portuguese Medical Schools (CEMP). He is currently rector of ICBAS-UP and President of the Scientific Council since December 2018.

Joana Azeredo is an associate professor at the University of Minho, a researcher at the Center for Biological Engineering and coordinator of the Bacteriophages and Biofilms research group. Her research activity focuses on the development of biotechnological solutions for the control of bacterial infections, and she has made a major contribution to the field of phage therapy. She was recently honored by the ICTV with the proposal to assign her surname to a subfamily of bacteriophages (Azeredovirinae). She is a founding member of the International Society of Viruses of Microbes and actively participates in the dissemination of the society's scientific activities. She is editor of the Virology Journal and co-author of 4 patents, 4 books and more than 250 articles in international journals.

Luís Lopes da Costa has been a full professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Lisbon since 2006. His research focuses on the study of embryo-maternal interactions leading to the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy, and the cellular and molecular pathophysiological mechanisms of uterine inflammation and infection. He runs an assisted reproduction team and an official germplasm bank, and is the director of an IPAQ-accredited reproductive disease diagnostic laboratory, all of which provide services to the community. Since 2018, he has been President of the Scientific Council of FMV-ULisboa and, since 2021, he has been director of the Associated Laboratory for Animal and Veterinary Science (AL4AnimalS), whose thematic lines are central to the concept of Health.

Luís Pereira de Almeida is a Group Leader and coordinates the CNC-Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology and the Center for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology - Associated Laboratory (CIBB) at the University of Coimbra, where he is also an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy. He received his doctorate from the Lausanne CHUV Gene Therapy Center in Switzerland and has worked in the field of gene therapy for brain diseases such as Machado-Joseph disease. He is involved in several initiatives including the coordination of GeneT - a Teaming project of schedule Horizon Europe, to create a new Center of Excellence in Gene Therapy.

Manuel Santos is the scientific director of the Multidisciplinary Institute of Ageing, MIA-Portugal, and Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra. He has developed his scientific and academic career in England, the United States, France and at the University of Aveiro, where he founded the Department of Medical Sciences and the Institute of Biomedicine - iBiMED. His research focuses on mRNA translation errors by the ribosome and their role in cell degeneration and senescence, proteome instability and diversification, and the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.  

Nuno Ferrand de Almeida is a biologist and Professor of Evolutionary and Conservation Biology at the University of Porto, and Director of CIBIO, a Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Research Center. schedule He is also Director of BIOPOLIS, a private non-profit association that currently runs the largest Biodiversity research center in Europe, with the University of Montpellier, France, as its main partner. He also designed, implemented and opened to the public the new Museum of Natural History and Science at the University of Porto, which is developing a new museological approach between art and science. He is the author of more than 150 scientific articles in international journals and has published several books. His main research interests are related to understanding the origins and maintenance of biological diversity at a global level, including current strategies that lead to the sustainability of our planet. He also created the TwinLab concept, which is an important tool used for scientific collaborations between Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, but which has recently been extended to other geographies. For more than a decade, he has created and been the director of BIODIV, a global doctorate schedule that promotes the training of a new generation of students of all nationalities, and is now responsible for a new double-degree master's course between Portugal and Angola. In more recent times, he has been awarded multiple times, including the Gold and Merit Medals from the Municipalities of Vila do Conde and Porto, the Grand Prix Ciência Viva 2022, and the Légion d'Honneur awarded in June 2023 by the French President.

Sónia Dias is Director and Full Professor at the National School of Public Health at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She has a PhD in International Health. Her scientific activity focuses on health promotion, disease prevention and socio-behavioral sciences, with a focus on health inequalities, as well as the evaluation of health interventions and policies. She has extensive experience in projects, particularly those funded by the European Union. She is a consultant for several international organizations and scientific panels. She is the author of more than 150 articles in indexed scientific journals and has published several book chapters.

Tiago Marques is a senior researcher at the Champalimaud Clinical Center where he co-leads the Digital Surgery LAB. The main focus of his work is to develop medical devices to improve the planning and execution of surgeries by combining new Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. Before that, Tiago did a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT in AI and computational neuroscience. Tiago did his doctoral thesis at the Champalimaud Foundation, studying visual perception, and has a master's degree in Technological Physics Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, specializing in control and data acquisition. Tiago also had professional experience in strategic consulting at BCG.

Virginia Dignum is Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University, Sweden. She leads the AI Policy Lab. She holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Utrecht University, and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), the United Nations Advisory Board on AI (and only Portugal), the Global Partnership on AI and the UNESCO expert group on the implementation of AI recommendations. Fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EURAI), She founded ALLAI, the Dutch AI Alliance, and is co-chair of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Future Council on AI.