I am a theoretical biologist currently affiliated with ITQB NOVA (Oeiras), where I am a member of Adriano Henrique’s laboratory, and with ICBAS, (Porto), where I integrate the Scientific Committee of a new Master’s in Integrative and Systems Immunology and I am involved in other pedagogic projects.
I am fascinated by the biological individuation and organisation of living systems. Studying these, requires breadth rather than narrow specialisation. The languages of (molecular) biology, biochemistry, physiology, genetics and evolution as well as those of statistics, mathematics, computer science and engineering, are not completely alien to me, after collaborating and publishing with colleagues across different fields.
Since "what I cannot [model] I don't understand", I have modelled a pletora of biological systems, from molecules to cells to multicellular organisms but my most explored arena has been the immune system. My research group was at the forefront of modelling regulatory T cells, the cells that prevent autoimmune diseases in healthy individuals. We demonstrated theoretically that the growth of the population of regulatory T cells depends on factors produced by the potentially pathogenic cells that they control. Our theory of the role that these cells play in the development, homeostasis, and interplay between health and disease in the immune system —captured in the Crossregulation Model—inspired engineering solutions for detection of spam and anomalies in collective robotic systems, in a successful example of translation of very basic science.
I got my licenciatura in Biochemistry in 1991 and my PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Porto in 1997. There, I got introduced to research environments at the Theoretical Chemistry Group of the Faculty of Sciences and in the Immunology Laboratory of the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute with Mario Arala Chaves. I did my PhD research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, modelling the immune systems with John Stewart. After a short postdoc with Rob de Boer at the Bioinformatics and Theoretical Biology Group of the University of Utrecht, I became an independent scientist at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Portugal) in 1998. At the IGC, I animated a research group dedicated to mathematical modelling of biological systems. I worked with many colleagues towards science education and the creation of science-enabling environments at the institute and beyond. I informally managed the theoretical and computational wing of the IGC; directly mentored PhD students at the institute and other national and international institutiosn; organised and taught graduate courses; collaborated in the planning and fundraised for the first PhD Programme in Computational Biology, eventually becoming its director; served as Deputy Director for Science; and last, but not least, served as Director of the PhD Programme in Integrative Biology and Biomedicine. I did a sabbatical in the Instituto de Biotecnologia, UNAM, Mexico.