Invited Speakers

Eduardo Cruz Brazete holds a PhD in Physical Therapy from the University of Brighton, UK, and is Professor at the Department of the Physiotherapy from the School of Health – Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal. He Is currently board member of the Master in Physiotherapy taught jointly by the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the National School of Public Health, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He is also Member of the International Advisory Board of the journal Manual Therapy, and reviewer of Manual Therapy, Clinical Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy: Theory and Practice.

Isabel Cardoso holds a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Porto. She is Principal Investigator at IBMC and director of the group “Modulation in Neurodegenerative Disorders- MiND”. Her research focuses in neurosciences, and she is particularly interested in studying modulating molecules in Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, she is also concentrating her efforts on comprehending the functioning of the blood-brain barrier, as well as in the study of common denominators to neurodegenerative disorders.

Sílvia Conde received her degree in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon in 2000. She pursued her PhD in 2007 from both the School of Medicine, University of Valladolid in Biotechnology and the NOVA Medical School , NOVA University in Pharmacology. She is a researcher at CEDOC since 2007, being Principal investigator since 2013 of the Research Group: Neuronal control of metabolic disturbances- therapeutic strategies. Also, she is tenured assistant professor at NOVA Medical School. Since then Silvia has been granted several research projects and awards during the years. In 2002 she was granted with the Pfizer Honour Young Researcher Prize and the Castro-Heymans-Neil Award. In 2009 she was awarded with the L’Oreal Medals of Honour for Women in Science and more recently in 2012 she received the Hargreaves award from the Portuguese Society of Diabetes. Silvia’s research focused on understanding the physiology of the autonomic nervous system, more specifically the carotid body, and its deregulation in pathological states, like metabolic disturbances, with the aim of identifying molecular targets, which may be of clinical use.

JONATHAN MCNULTY is Head of Educational Development in the School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Ireland where he has coordinated the BSc Radiography programme and oversees 20 postgraduate programmes. He is a University Fellow in Teaching and Academic Development and his research interests include medical education research, optimisation, neuroimaging and image perception. He has delivered over 80 conference presentations, contributed to over 45 journal articles and has held significant national and international research grants. He is former chairman of the Erasmus Radiography Group, a consortium of 16 academic institutions from across Europe, and former chairman of the Radiographers Scientific Subcommittee for European Congress of Radiology. He was elected to the Board of the European Federation of Radiographer Socieites in 2014 where he represents European radiographers in matters relating to education and research.

Alexandra Lopes holds a PhD in Social Policy by the London School of Economics. Her thesis is about the consequences of demographic ageing to the organizational systems of social welfare of the familial type. Expert in the general field of Ageing Studies, she has focused her research on specific matters such as: management of dependences and care systems in Portugal; inequalities and poverty among elderly population; theoretical developments of the concept of social class in its relationship with demographic ageing; methodologies of longitudinal analysis and international comparison.

Currently she is coordinator of the Portuguese team within the project SPRINT – SOCIAL PROTECTION INNOVATIVE INVESTMENT ON LONG-TERM CARE, a research project financed by the European Commission in the context of the Horizon2020 framework. The objective of this project, with an estimated length of three years and conclusion in 2018, is the development of a matrix common to the European space for the assessment of different solutions in the domain of long-term care provided to elderly population. That matrix will apply the structuring principles of the concept of ‘social investment’, and will require the use of the SROI matrix to analyze the different European countries. The SPRINT project involves a consortium of 12 institutions and is headed by the London School of Economics.

Alexandre Castro Caldas is the Director of the Health Sciences Institute of the Portuguese Catholic University. He was, until February 2004, Associate Professor of Neurology in the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon, and Director of the Neurology service of the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon.

His scientific publications include several books and more than 100 articles in foreign journals, as well as countless chapters in national and international books. He is member of several international societies and advisor in many national and international magazines. His main scientific interest is linked to Cognitive Neurosciences.

RUI NUNES graduated in Medicine, in the Faculty of Medicine of the Porto University (FMUP) in 1985. Later, in 1996, he was awarded with a PhD in Medicine in the Bioethics field. In 2002 he obtained the title of Associate Professor in Medical Sociology and in 2009 the title of Associate Professor in Bioethics in this faculty. He is a Hospital Medicine Career advisor since 1999. He is a Professor of Medical Sociology, Director of the FMUP’s Department of Social and Health Sciences, and director of the PhD in Bioethics, of the Master degree in Palliative Care and of the postgraduate course in Hospital Management and Administration. He has published twenty books on topics such as health, bioethics, culture and general society. Among those publications, books such as Prioridades na Saúde, Testamento Vital and GeneÉtica stand out.

Between 2002 and 2003, he occupied the position of Director of the School of Allied Health Technologies of Porto. In 2002, he was elected President of the Portuguese Bioethics Association, and in March 2004 he was named first President of the Portuguese Health Regulation Authority by the Council of Ministers, holding that position until September 2005. He was a member of the National Ethics Council for Life Sciences between 2003 and 2009. Between 2009 and 2013 he was the administrator of the Foundation for Science and Development. Between 2010 and 2012 he was co-administrator of the European Health Management Association. In 2011 he was one of the founders of the Porto’s Social Innovation Centre, and since 2013 he is coordinator of the Program Porto – City of Science. He is, since 2014, coordinator of the National Council to the National Health Service of the Portuguese Medical Association. In 2015, he became Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Portuguese Health Regulation Authority.

Bruno Silva-Santos is the Vice-Director of the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM) and Associate Professor with Aggregation in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL). He leads a team of researchers in the area of Onco-Immunology at the iMM, and teaches Immunology at FMUL since 2005. He is, since 2013, the President of the Scientific Council of Lymphact S.A., a biotechnology company specialized in the development of immunotherapeutic strategies addressed to cancer. He received, in 2009, the Pfizer award in Clinical Research, and in 2011 he was a chosen member for the European Academy of Tumor Immunology. Bruno Silva-Santos holds a PhD in Immunology, awarded by the University College of London in 2002, included in the Gulbenkian PhD Programme in Biology and Medicine. During the seven years that he spent in London, Bruno Silva-Santos worked at the Cancer Research UK – The London Research Institute (1998-2002) and at the King’s College London (2002-2005). In 2006 he returned to Portugal, where he was awarded with an Installation Grant by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and, in 2010, he joined the prestigious group of winners of the Starting Grants, awarded by the European Research Council (ERC), the same institution which has recently given him a Consolidator Grant (2015-2020). So far, he has published 49 scientific articles in the most prestigious scientific magazines, such as Science, Nature and Nature Immunology.

Carlos Vasconcelos is the Director of the Internal Medicine Service of Hospital de Santo António, from Porto’s Hospital Centre, and Visiting Professor at the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences / HGSA, where he is also the coordinator of the Medicine’s course unit, lectured in the sixth year of the Master Degree in Medicine. Currently, he is the Director of the Clinical Immunology Unit (UIC), where patients with immunodeficiencies (most of them associated with HIV, but also primary) are followed, and autoimmune disorders, particularly from the field of Rheumatology. He was chairman of the 8th European Lupus Meeting, Porto 2011, and takes part in the organizing international committees of the European Lupus Meeting and the International Congress on SLE. He is, since 1990, the coordinator of the Committee for Hospital Infection Control at the HGSA. Before that, he was regional coordinator of ARS NORTH for healthcare-associated infections. He was a member, from its beginning, of the Comissão Nacional de Luta contra a SIDA (National Comittee for Fight Against AIDS). He was also part of the national team for the recommendations on the HIV follow-up, and the National Coordination to the HIV/AIDS infection until 2012. He is a member of APECS, SidaNet, Portuguese Society of Immunology, Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine and its centres of autoimmune disorders (NEDAI) and HIV. In an international context, he is a member of the American College of Rheumatology, of the International Advisory Board Autoimmune / Annals of Autoimunidad, and reviewer of the LUPUS magazine, among others. He takes part in the European networks Euro-Lupus, European Phospholipid, Biolupus, EULAR’s Task Force on SLE, and in global networks such as the Consortium of Autoimmune Centres, Lupus Nephritis Trials Network and, more recently, the PRECISESADS Project.

Maria Angeles Lídia Santos holds a Bachelor degree in Nursing awarded by the University of Navarra (1985), as well as a specialization in Managemet of Healthcare Services, a Master degree in Nursing Science (2005) and a Phd in Health Sciences by the Public University of Navarra.
Professor of the Health Sciences Department at the Public University of Navarra, she is responsible for the ‘Sanitary Management and Bioethics’ course unit. With a vast experience in management positions, among others, she took part in the team of experts responsible for the unification of the Pamplona hospitals (Navarra), as well as its first board of directors. She was director of the School of Sanitary Studies of the Public University of Navarra, where she also performed duties as member of the Government Council, of the Social Council and as defender of the Community for Students.

Joana Tavares graduated in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2003 and received in 2008 a PhD degree in Biochemistry by the University of Porto. From 2009 to 2013 she conducted post-doctoral research at Pasteur Institute in Paris. She was from 2003 to 2007 Instructor at the Biochemistry department of the Faculty Pharmacy University of Porto and from 2007 to 2011 Invited Assistant of Immunology. J. Tavares has been research associate at the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC), University of Porto, since 2013. She has been working with protozoan parasites responsible for important human diseases such as Leishmania, Trypanosoma brucei and Plasmodium. She has contributed to the identification of potential drug targets in Trypanosomatids and to the search for target specific inhibitors. More recently, she became an expert on live imaging, including intravital confocal microscopy to dissect in mice the mechanisms used by parasites to overcome host defenses.

Sara Cavaco holds a Bachelor degree in Psychology awarded by the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto, a PhD in Neurosciences by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, and a post-doctorate in Neuropsychology by the University of Iowa Carver – College of Medicine and the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.
She works as a neuropsychologist, and is responsible for the Neuropsychology Unit of the Porto Hospital Centre.

Teresa Summavielle has a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in development of the nervous system under exposure to psychostimulant drugs. She heads the Addiction Biology Group (i3S-IBMC), which explores the mechanisms of neurotoxicity induced by drug abuse and addiction. She coordinates courses in “Neurobiology of Addiction” in two doctoral programs (University of Porto) and she is an invited Professor at the ESTSP-IPP. She has also a particular interest in Science Communication as a tool to prevent drug abuse in the adolescent population.

Vasco Galhardo received his degree in Biology and his PhD in Human Biology at the University of Porto and has been involved in Pain Research for almost 20 years. In 1997-1998 he was a visiting researcher in the laboratory of A.V. Apkarian (SUNY Upstate Medical University, presently at Northwestern) learning the novel techniques of multielectrode neurophysiology and human functional imaging. Upon his return, he started one of the first european labs of
awake animal neurophysiology, and began training a small group of young researchers. Over the last 7 years, this group made important contributions to the understanding of the neural mechanisms behind pain-induced cognitive deficits, focusing on the study of malplasticity in the functional connectivity of prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus of adult rats and mice, and on how this faulty reorganization affects behavioural performance in tasks dependent on learning, memory, and emotional decision-making. In addition, Vasco Galhardo is a tenured professor of Histology and Embryology in the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, is one of the coordinators of the Doctoral Program in Neuroscience, and is involved in the local programs for integration of young medical students in basic research labs. He has a number of highly relevant publications and was twice awarded the Grunenthal Foundation a PREMIO DOR for best Pain Experimental Research.

Sanches Magalhães is a physician specialized in Urology, having received his post-graduate training from 1999 to 2005 at IPO-Porto. He implemented the dynamic sentinel lymph node technique in the standardization of patients diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the penis at IPO-Porto. He has a great interest in the area of minimally invasive surgery / laparoscopy in oncological urology, having attended several courses in that area. He also implemented the laparoscopy practice in the routine of the Urology service of IPO-Porto.
Since 2015, he has been attending courses on image-guided focal therapy for prostate cancer, having implemented the transperineal prostate biopsy with setup for brachytherapy.

Susana Almeida is a physician specialized in Psychiatry by the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), in association with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London (KCL) (2003-2008), having received training in Psychogeriatric (Memory Clinic) and in Neuropsychiatry (KCL Hospital and Lishman Unit, SLaM). She works as a psychiatrist at the Psycho-Oncology Service of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO)-Porto (from 2009-today), at the Cuf Hospital (2009-today) and at the Psychogeriatric Service of the Magalhães Lemos Hospital (2009). She has experience as a Teacher in higher education institutions (Medical Psychology – FMUP, 2001-2014; Post-Graduation and Master’s degree in Competences in Clinical Communication-FMUP, since 2008; Master’s degree in Oncology – ICBAS, since 2012). Currently she holds a AstraZeneca scholarship (2013-) for clinical research in Psychoneuroimmunology (Principal Investigator). She is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists UK (since 2007), of the British Association of Psychopharmacology (since 2007), of the Portuguese Sleep Association (since 2010) and of the Social Organs of the Portuguese Academy of Psycho-oncology (since 2011; Vice-President of the Scientific Council since 2013).

Sergio del Rio Gonzalez has a Medicine degree at University of Medicine in Zaragoza
Actually, is doing Urology residency at Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital in Málaga.
Also he is teaching in the MIR Asturias Academy (Oviedo, Asturias, Spain). He is member of the COST/ReST European Network (Regenerative Sphinter Therapy for the Stress Urinary Incontinence) and member of inter-center Research Unit that Málaga Hospital. At the moment, Sergio is collaborating in a research project using the Prolaris oncogenetic test. He has several publications on congresses of the speciality.

Patricia Maciel graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Porto in 1993 and completed her PhD in Biomedical Sciences (Genetics) in 1998, with work developed at McGill University, Canada. The goal of her research is to understand the genetic basis of nervous system function and dysfunction, with a strong focus on human neurological disease, using molecular genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, cell biology and behavioural analysis. Her team at the University of Minho studies neurodegenerative disorders, such as Machado-Joseph disease, and neurodevelopmental disorders, including intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders and epilepsy. The disease models they develop in C. elegans and mouse are used to not only to understand pathogenic mechanisms, but also to search for therapeutic targets and test the efficacy of therapeutic strategies. A strong focus of interest of the lab is the role of the ubiquitin proteasome system and of chromatin remodelling in neuronal function and dysfunction. She has over 100 publications in this field, which granted her several awards and international recognition.

João Queiroz is the General Director of Higher Education (since November 2014) and Full Professor of Chemistry (Biochemistry) at the University of Beira Interior (since November 2003). He graduated in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra in 1986. Later, in 1991, he completed a Master’s degree in Biotechnology (Biochemical Engineering) at Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical University of Lisbon), and in 1996 he finished his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Beira Interior.
Throughout the years he assumed several positions at UBI, such as (in chronological order): President of the Chemistry department (from 1998 to 2002); President of the Electoral Commission (from 2000 to 2006); Pro-Rector (from 2000 to 2004); Aggregation in the Biochemistry area (2002); President of the Faculty of Health Sciences of UBI (from 2002 to 2009); Scientific Coordinator of the CICS-UBI – Research Centre in Health Sciences (from 2003 to 2009); Vice-Rector (from 2004 to 2009); President of the Scientific Council and, by virtue, of the Coordinating Commission of the Scientific Council (from 2006 to 2009) and Rector (from 2009 to 2013). In addition, he was a Member of the Executive Commission of the Portuguese Universities Foundation (from 2009 to 2014) and Member of the CRUP’s Permanent Commission (from 2010 to 2013), having been also Coordinator of the Specialized Commission “Social Action” of the Rectors Council.

Rui Cernadas joined the Governing Board of ARS Norte in 2011. He is, since 2012, the Vice-President of this public institute.
He is a physician specialized in General Practice / Family Medicine and also in Occupational Medicine and Competency in Pharmaceutical Medicine by the Portuguese Medical Association.
He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Vila Nova de Gaia’s Hospital Centre and of the Senhora da Oliveira hospital (Guimarães). He is also a member of the Technic and Scientific Council of the Institute of Public Health (University of Porto).
He is PhD student in Health Sciences and Technology, area of Clinical Decision-Making, awarded by the University of Aveiro.
He is the editor-in-chief of the Portuguese edition of the medical journal Patient Care.
Among lectures, conferences and round-table discussions, both national and international, he took part in more than 250 sessions and published scientific articles in national and international medical journals.

José C. Machado (JCM) is the vice-president of the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto (Ipatimup), where he also holds the position of Group Coordinator. In addition, he is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto. His main scientific interest is the molecular genetics of cancer, and he is internationally recognised for his research in stomach cancer associated with infection by Helicobacter pylori. The main scientific concern underlying the research conducted by his group is to understand how genetic information is transferred between cancer cells, and the impact that this process has on the heterogeneity, diversity and plasticity of the cancer cells. JCM received financial support from agencies such as Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Agência de Inovação (ADI), Ministry of Health and European Community (EC). He is also responsible for Ipatimup’s Unit for Provision of Diagnostic Services. This unit is certified by the norm ISO9001:2008 and accredited by the CAP (College of American Pathologists), being a reference laboratory in Portugal for the detection of biomarkers in cancer, gene testing and pathological anatomy. Until July 22th 2015, JCM (Researcher ID: C-5907-2009) is credited as being co-author of 128 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals, with a total number of 4496 citations and an h-index of 32.

João O. Malva has a bachelor degree in Biology (1987) and a PhD in Cell Biology (1997). In 2009 he became Professor with Aggregation in Health Sciences – Biomedicine field, at the University of Coimbra.
He has focused his scientific career in the Neurosciences domain and in the search for innovative solutions to address the challenges linked to the ageing of populations.
He was the coordinator of the research group “Neuroprotection and Neurogenesis in Brain Repair” at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of Coimbra (CNC) and at the Biochemistry Institute of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra. He takes on an active role in the coordination of the Ageing@Coimbra consortium (European Innovation Partnership for Healthy and Active Ageing), and he is also Deputy Director of the EIT-Health InnoStars consortium. In addition, he was President of the Portuguese Society of Neurosciences (2007-2011) and he is a member, since 2006, of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain (EDAB).
He was Secretary of the Faulty of Medicine’s Assembly (2009-2015) and Vice-Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research of the University of Coimbra (2013-2015).

Graziela Carvalheiras holds a bachelor degree in Medicine awarded by the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar of the University of Porto.
Specialist in Internal Medicine, she shares her hospital activity between the Medical-Surgical Intermediate Unit and the Clinical Immunology Unit of the Porto’s Hospital Centre – Hospital de Santo António. In the latter, her duties are focused on Autoimmune Diseases and Acquired Immunodeficiencies – Infection by HIV.
She participates as a co-researcher in several clinical trials in the area of autoimmune diseases. She is also an Invited Professor of the curricular unit ‘Medicine II – Clinical Immunology’, which is part of the 5th year of the Integrated Master’s Degree in Medicine at ICBAS/HSA.

Fernando de Jesus Regateiro is Professor at FMUC, director of the Genetics Service and member of the Portuguese Academy of Medicine. He owns a “competence in management of healthcare services” recognised by the Portuguese Medical Association. He is the coordinator of the infrastructure network UCGenomics and of the international cooperation area at FMUC, and the general coordinator of the Integrated Master’s degree in Medicine of the Cape Verde University.
He is the author of the book Manual de Genética Médica (“Medical Genetics Textbook”), co-author of more than 15 books and author or co-author of more than 200 scientific projects.
He was president of the Board of Directors of the Coimbra University Hospitals and director of both ARS-Coimbra and the Histocompatibility Centre of the central region. Additionally, he was advisor at the National Ethics Committee for Life Sciences and of the National Education Council. He was the first director of the Coimbra University Press.