The award recognises his contributions to the development of innovative biomaterial platforms for drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine applications.

Established in 2018, the Pharmaceutics Young Investigator Award acknowledges the achievements of early-career researchers in the science and technology of pharmaceutics. Nominations are submitted annually between May and December, with the selected awardee announced in March of the following year.

His project, RAPID-CTCs – Maximizing the ex vivo expansion of circulating tumor cells with agitation-based platforms towards personalized oncology, aims to develop new strategies to expand and study circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the laboratory.

CTCs are rare cancer cells that circulate in the bloodstream and can give rise to metastases in distant organs. Understanding how these cells grow and respond to therapies is considered a major challenge in cancer research and could play an important role in improving treatment decisions for patients.

“Circulating tumour cells can act as seeds for metastatic tumours in distant organs and are key to understanding how metastasis develops,” explains Nuno Bernardes.

The project focuses particularly on triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive and highly heterogeneous disease in which metastasis accounts for a significant share of cancer-related deaths. Despite their clinical relevance, the use of circulating tumour cells in research and clinical practice remains limited due to the difficulty of detecting and expanding them in laboratory conditions.

Through the RAPID-CTCs project, the research team aims to develop innovative culture strategies that enable the expansion and characterisation of these cells outside the body. By making it possible to study their behaviour and response to therapies in greater detail, the project seeks to advance cancer research and contribute to more effective and personalised treatment approaches.

For Nuno Bernardes, the recognition highlights the potential of bioengineering approaches to address key challenges in oncology and reinforces the work developed at Técnico in the field of biomedical and translational research.

In this year’s edition of the Gilead Génese Programme, 47 projects from across Portugal were submitted, including 26 research projects and 21 community intervention initiatives. From these applications, 10 projects were selected — four in the research category and six in community intervention — with a total of €300,000 in funding to support initiatives addressing HIV, chronic viral hepatitis, and oncology.

]]> https://ibb.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/kristin-schuler-awarded-biomedicines-travel-award-for-innovative-osteoarthritis-research/ Fri, 09 Jan 2026 12:35:48 +0000 https://ibb.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/?p=14920 Kristin has been awarded a Biomedicines Travel Award by the open-access journal Biomedicines (MDPI). The award will support her presentation, “Bridging Endocrinology and Orthopaedics: An Animal-Free Organ-on-Chip Model for Menopausal Osteoarthritis,” at the 34th Annual Meeting of the European Orthopaedic Research Society (EORS2026), in Madrid.

Osteoarthritis disproportionately affects postmenopausal women, yet many existing animal and clinical models fail to capture the human-specific, gradual hormonal changes that shape disease progression. To address this gap, Kristin is developing a human, animal-free organ-on-chip platform that integrates synovium and cartilage tissues.

This approach enables the study of menopause-associated OA mechanisms and the testing of hormone-sensitive therapeutic candidates in a physiologically relevant 3D system.

We look forward to seeing this work presented at EORS2026 and to its contribution to more personalised, sex-specific approaches for osteoarthritis treatment!

The main aim of the project is to develop a human-based dynamic microfluidics-based in vitro model that mimics both osteoarthritis (OA) and menopause-related hormonal alterations to study why the OA disease worsens after menopause and allow the testing of safer and more personalised therapies, avoiding the use of animal-derived materials and reducing the reliance on animal experiments.

Link: https://www.pcrm.org/HUMAINaward/2025-awardees

The conference, organized by Escola Naval, aims at the presentation and discussion of data related to the Ocean.

Sebastião Tavares was awarded with an Honorable Mention for his presentation which shows how biotechnology solutions may be used to improve microalgae properties for the food industry.

Ricardo Pereira, together with José Chaves Pereira and Carla de Carvalho (2BRG-iBB), presented the poster entitled “Insights into marine cell adhesion to surfaces: a Computational Fluid Dynamics approach”. The work was recognised with the Best Poster Award, highlighting the quality and relevance of the research developed at iBB.

Congratulations!

The event serves as a meeting point for doctoral researchers, faculty, industry partners, and alumni, strengthening dialogue across sectors and promoting collaboration within the research and innovation ecosystem.

Pedro secured 1st place in the PhD Pitch Competition with his presentation, “The Cancer Challenge: Targeting Cancer One Vesicle at a Time.” His pitch highlighted the growing relevance of extracellular vesicles as advanced drug delivery platforms with significant promise for precision oncology.

These rankings, developed by Stanford University in collaboration with Elsevier, identify the world’s top 2% of scientists based on standardized citation indicators across all disciplines.

iBB’s Most Influential Scientists in 2024 (Annual Impact Index)

• Carla Carvalho

• Joaquim Cabral

• Mário Berberan e Santos

• Pedro Fernandes

• Pedro Fonte

iBB Scientists with Influential Careers (Career-long Impact Index)

• Carla Carvalho

• Isabel Sá-Correia

• Joaquim Cabral

• Mário Berberan e Santos

• Miguel Prazeres

• Pedro Fernandes

This recognition reflects the global impact and scientific excellence of iBB and Técnico researchers, whose work continues to advance bioengineering, biotechnology, and sustainable innovation.

The distinction recognizes her pioneering research project, WireCan, which explores the unique electrical characteristics of cancer cells. The project aims to develop nanobioelectronic devices capable of disrupting cancer cell bioelectric signals, thereby inhibiting their growth.

In laboratory studies, the technology successfully stopped tumour growth in breast cancer cells and selectively induced the death of diseased cells without harming healthy ones. Preliminary animal model tests have also shown promising results, including a measurable reduction in tumour size.

Beyond oncology, the underlying technology holds potential for therapeutic applications in neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy, further broadening the impact of this innovative approach.

The other three researchers recognized in this year’s edition are:

• Ana Rita Lopes (Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon),

• Céline Gonçalves (Life and Health Sciences Research Institute – ICVS, University of Minho),

• Patrícia Henriques (i3S – Institute for Research and Innovation in Health, University of Porto).