Invited Speakers
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Francisco Dionísio, FCUL | |
 | Francisco is an Assistant Professor (Professor Auxiliar) at the “Universidade de Lisboa” and he is the head of the Evolutionary Ecology of Microorganisms group at the “Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa”. His group is doing research mostly in evolutionary ecology of microorganisms, with a focus on bacteria, viruses and plasmids. Their approach involves both laboratory work and theoretical research. They study cooperation, competition, spite, and sex among bacterial cells, and their impact on pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance. Francisco concluded his PhD in Microbiology at the “Université de Paris VII” in 2000 and made a Post-Doc in David Haig group at Harvard University in 2005-2006. Recently, he is author of a chapter in the book 'Horizontal Gene Transfer in Microorganisms' and he even published his own book about genetic conflicts – “Uma Tampa para cada Tacho”. |
Luísa Figueiredo, IMM | |
| Luísa received her B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry from “Universidade do Porto”, and her Ph.D. degree in Molecular Parasitology from “Institut Pasteur, France and Universidade do Porto” in 1997 and 2002, respectively. From 2003 to 2009 she was a Postdoctoral researcher at “The Rockefeller University, New York, USA”. Since 2010, Luísa is the group leader of the Parasite Molecular Genetics Unit at the “Instituto de Medicina Molecular” in Lisbon, and became a leading expert in the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness - Trypanosoma brucei. Currently, she is focused in identifying the chromatin factors that activate or silence the different VSG genes to use them as therapeutic targets for the disease. For her efforts in this area, she already received several awards, including the 2010 Crioestaminal Award and the 2012 HHMI International Early Career Scientist. |
Arsénio Fialho, IST | |
| Arsénio M. Fialho received his B.S. degree in Biology from “Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa”, and his Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology from “Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, in 1986 and 1996, respectively. Since 2004, he has been an Associate Professor at the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, IST, and a Researcher Member of the Centre for Biological and Chemical Engineering, Institute of Bioengineering and Biotechnology. Recently, he also received a Habilitation in Biotechnology at IST. His research interests are focused on the biosynthesis and role of bacterial exopolysaccharides, particularly, the commercial gellan gum from Sphingomonas elodea and the exopolysaccharide produced by Burkholderia cepacia isolates from cystic fibrosis patients. His current scientific interests are also centered on the study of bacterial proteins, such as cupredoxins, as novel promiscuous drug candidates with anticancer, antiparasitic, and anti-HIV activities. Complementarily, he has been deeply interested in bioinformatic and comparative analysis of Burkholderia genomes. He is the author of more than 60 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 8 U.S. patents, several book chapters and two books entitled “O Mundo do RNA: Novos Desafios e Perspectivas Futuras” and “Emerging Cancer Therapy: Microbial Approaches and Biotechnological tools” |
Miguel Gonçalves | |
| Miguel Gonçalves is an atypical psychologist, a creative with childish imagination. He founded Spark Agency, a creativity agency specialized in design thinking and acceleration ecosystems and has created several frameworks that are redesigning the interface between people and companies: Udini – Intended to be the best mentoring network in Portugal, brings together CEOs and businessmen and people who want to launch their business ideas. sparkageny.pt/udini SIM, Ideias Para Portugal – Idea Generation framework focused on the problems of Portugal in 5 axis: Academy/Market; Employment; Exporting; Future materials; Tourism. youtu.be/BbwAscD0cVc SiliconCard – A mobile app designed to empower networking in events, conferences and group activities. Launched in July, it has reached the top of Portuguese apps. siliconcard.me He’s a painter and has launched SliceWalking, a project that support more than 40 families in 3rd world countries through art.slicewalking.com He shared his thoughts on the job market inTEDxYouth Braga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_f6Txwc-kk. He’s 33 and wants to change the World! |
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