Rogério Gaspar (RG) is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Lisboa (FFUL), previously the Vice-Rector/Pro-Rector for Research, Entrepreneurship and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Lisboa, ULisboa (July 2013 – September 2016 and October 2016 – September 2017) and currently the President of the Portuguese Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPCF). Since 2017 he is a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy (RANF, Spain). He also represents FFUL at the coordination of OPSS (Portuguese Observatory for Health Systems).
At the University of Lisbon (where he moved after being at the University of Coimbra from 1985 to 2006) he was the coordinator for the Pharmaceutical Technology sector (2007-2011 and 2011-2013), and also the coordinator (2007-2013) of the Nanomedicine & Drug Delivery Systems research group (Nano&DDS, ~60 researchers) within the Research Institute for Medicines and Pharmaceutical Sciences (iMed.UL) which he co-founded in 2007. Current research interests include the development of new therapeutic strategies using liposomes, polymeric biodegradable nanoparticles, and polymer therapeutics, with the main focus oriented towards cytosolic delivery of nucleic acids and use of targeted delivery systems for combination therapy or therapeutic vaccines in cancer.
He was also Sub-director FFUL / Vice-Dean FFUL (2012-2013), an elected member of the Scientific Council and Faculty Assembly of FFUL (2009-2013 and 2018-2022) and was also a member of the General Council of the University of Lisbon (2008-2013). Since June 2015, RG integrates the Department of Social Pharmacy at FFUL and was elected its President in February 2017 and re-elected for the next 4 years in July 2018. From May 1st, 2017 he become a researcher at the Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB) of the University of Lisbon.
After graduation as a pharmacist from the University of Coimbra (Portugal) in 1985, Rogério Gaspar obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) in 1991, for his research on the development of bioerodible polymeric nanoparticles for delivery of anti-Leishmaniasis chemotherapy. On return to the University of Coimbra he started the Colloidal Drug Carriers Unit (1993) within the Centre for Neurosciences and Cell Biology at Coimbra (CNC). The main research interests where nanoparticle-macrophage interactions, imaging systems for MRI, nanoparticulate ocular drug delivery, brain delivery, cancer targeted therapeutics using stealth-targeted liposomes and cytosolic delivery of nucleic acids using different cationic or pH sensitive systems. At that moment he became involved in the development of European Research Networks for advanced training (e.g. initiator and first coordinator of the Galenos network, 1993-1996) and served as president of the Spanish-Portuguese Local Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (2002-2005).
Between 1995 to 2002, in parallel with his research activities in academia, he became involved as expert and member of the Portuguese medicines evaluation board (INFARMED; and from Jan 2000-July 2002 as Vice-Chairman of the Management Board at INFARMED). He also became involved with the European Medicines Agency (now EMA) where he served on several committees (incl. CPMP now CHMP), he was a member of the Management Board, and of expert groups of the European Council of Ministers and European Commission. He was the coordinator of the working group that concluded the approval at Council of Ministers level for the European Directive in Clinical Trials (2000) and participated in the initial steps of the mutual recognition between Japan and EU in the pharmaceutical sector (2002). Further positions as expert to INFARMED (2008-2011) and the newly formed Ad-hoc expert group in Nanomedicines to EMA (2009-2011) until 2011. He has also held posts as an external consultant with a role of coordination and overview on the research activities of the Portuguese pharmaceutical company Tecnimede (2002-2008), as a consultant to ASEAN countries in the context of a EU cooperation programme (2005-2006), and was a consultant/training advisor to a number of pharmaceutical companies including Cell Therapeutics Inc. (Seattle, USA), Fresenius (Bad Homburg, Germany), Zcube s.r.l. (Milano, Italy), TEVA (Israel) and Cellator (Vancouver, Canada). He was also member of the SAB of the EPSRC (UK) Platform in Nanomedicines (2007 and 2008), has been member of the EAB of EuroNanoMed-I and II (ERA-NET) (since 2009) and participated as a member of the SAB of the Spanish CIBBER-BBN (2010-2013). Since 2007 also participated as an external reviewer for research programmes in nanotechnology/nanomedicine /medicines research in Spain (Ministry of Industry, Inst. Carlos III), Norway (Norges forskningsråd), Austria (FWF) and South Africa (CSIR).
Rogério Gaspar was heavily involved in the elaboration and implementation of the European Science Foundation's (ESF) “Forward Look in Nanomedicine”, as Co-chair/chair of two ESF Nanomedicine Research Conferences in Sant Feliu (2006 and 2008), and Chair of the ESF Summer School Nanomedicine Lisbon (2009).

Participated as one the members of the expert-panel in the establishment of the “Pharmaceutical Sciences 2020” strategic roadmap of FIP (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928098709002139 ) and contributed to the “NanoMed Round Table: a report on the nanomedicine economic, regulatory, ethical and social environment” (http://www.philosophie.tu-darmstadt.de/media/institut_fuer_philosophie/diesunddas/nordmann/nanomed.pdf ), part of a FP7 project looking at positioning Nanomedicine in Europe.
Rogério was elected (2009-2013; and again in 2016-2018 and 2019-2020) as a member of the Executive Committee of the European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS) acting also as Vice-President of EUFEPS (2011-2012 and again from January 2019). In that capacity he previously coordinated its position paper (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092809871200382X) in Science Policy looking up at Horizon2020 for an European Medicines Research Agenda. From 2016, he has under his responsibilities at EUFEPS ExCo the topics in Science Policy, European Affairs and Regulatory Science, coordinating also the EUFEPS Network in Regulatory Science.
Daniela Iannazzo graduated in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Messina in 1995.
In 1999 she obtained the PhD qualification in Pharmaceutical Sciences and in 2001, the postgraduate qualification in Applied Microbiology at the University of Messina.
In 2001 she received a four years research contract at the University of Messina for the design, characterization and vehiculation of antivirals possessing a modified nucleosidic structure.
In 2003 she was Visiting Professor at the Departamento de Quimica Asimmetrica of the Faculty of Science at the University of Zaragoza and she was interested to the asymmetric synthesis of new modified nucleosides and to the application of quantomechanical calculations for the rationalization of pericyclic reactions.
In 2006 she became University Researcher in Organic Chemistry at the University of Messina.
In 2011 she performed research activity at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Trieste; the research activity regarded the organic functionalization of nanostructured materials for biomedical applications.
In 2018 she became Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry at the Department of Engineering of the University of Messina.
From 2019, she is member of the Doctoral Course in Bioengineering Applied to Medical Sciences of the University of Messina.
Daniela Iannazzo is author of 80 international publications on highly qualified international journals and 4 book chapters with H-index of 28 and number of citations greater than 1700 (font SCOPUS, May 2019). She is also author of 2 patents, one of which is an international patent.
Pedro Alpuim is group leader in 2D Materials and Devices at INL. He works in CVD and 2D materials device fabrication, with the emphasis in biosensors. In particular, he develops graphene devices to detect biomarkers for medicine and for environmental monitoring. Optoelectronic devices based on transition-metal di-chalcogenides for light detection and solar energy conversion are also within his research interests.
P. Alpuim is a professor in the Physics Department of the University of Minho (UM), where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on the physics of electronic devices, nanotechnology, and clean-room fabrication.
He received a PhD degree in Materials Engineering from IST Lisbon in 2003, working in amorphous silicon thin film devices for flexible electronics, and a Master degree in Physics from the UM. He installed a thin-film laboratory at UM where he focused on fabrication of thin-film silicon solar cells, piezoresistive sensor arrays for health care, and thermoelectric junctions of telluride compounds for micro-cooling and energy scavenging. He published more than 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has h-index=22.
Dr. Panseri has been trained on different topics in internationally renowned institutes such as University of Milano Bicocca and San Raffaele Scientific Institute (Stem Cell Research Institute) in Italy, Brain Research Institute of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) and University of Zurich, Columbia University (Dep. of Biomedical Engineering, New York). Her research activity has always been characterized by a multi and interdisciplinary approach, at the interfaces between nanotechnology and regenerative medicine. Her interests are focused on novel approaches in tissue engineering and nanomedicine, and she had acquired expertise in 3D stem cell culture with several nanobiomaterials and in vivo regenerative medicine. She was awarded the SIBS award for “Best PhD Thesis of 2009 in Biological Field”.
In 2010 she moved to the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics, National Research Council of Italy. She set up the first Cell/Biomaterial Interaction Lab of the Institute that she still manages. In the last years she has been involved as key personnel in several Eu projects (SCREENED - H2020â€SC1â€BHC-27â€2018â€825745. BioTechMA †2014â€1â€IT02â€KA203â€003482. MAGISTER †NMP3â€LAâ€2008â€214685. OPHIS †FP7â€NMPâ€2009â€SMALLâ€3â€246373. SMILEY †NMP4â€SLâ€2012â€310637).
She is co-inventor of 2 patents, she has been trained in BioEntrepreneurship (Advanced short course on BioBusiness - Swiss University in Lugano; Business Planning Bootcamp - EIT RawMaterials, Anacapri), and in 2013 she was awarded “Best Research Ideas” for the Market Competition (Second Prize): “Magnetic Bioactive and Biodegradable Microâ€Nano beads” at MiMe International Conference. Author of more than 60 papers published in international peerâ€reviewed journals, 12 book chapters, Hâ€index 21, coâ€editor of the eBook 'Biomimetic approaches for tissue healing'. Guest Editor of several Special Issues in peerâ€reviewed journals.
Nuno C. Santos was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1972. He graduated in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, in 1995, and received his PhD in Theoretical and Experimental Biochemistry in 1999 from the same University, although all the experimental work was conducted at Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical University of Lisbon) and University of California (Santa Barbara). Currently, he is Associate Professor with Habilitation of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, and Head of the Biomembranes & Nanomedicine Unit at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM). Among other distinctions, his research work was awarded with the Gulbenkian Prize for young researchers (2001), Dr. José Luis Champalimaud Prize – Basic Research (2004), Dr. José Luis Champalimaud Prize – Applied Research and Technology (2005) and the ULisboa – Caixa Geral de Depósitos Prize (2017). He is (co)author of 170 articles in per-reviewed international journals, which received more than 8300 citations (h-index 49 and i10-index 131, publishing since 1996), presenting a Journal Citation Reports impact factor sum of 876.1 (average 5.2 per article). In addition to these publications, he (co)authored 10 articles in Portuguese scientific journals, 15 book chapters (mostly published outside Portugal, in English), 3 books (editor, published by Wiley, Springer and MDPI) and 2 international patents. Among different National and International research projects, he was the coordinator of a consortium funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union (FP7), including 10 different research groups from Europe and Brazil. He is member of the Executive Committee of the European Biophysical Societies’ Association (EBSA) since 2019, and the Director of the M2B-PhD Doctoral Program in Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics (involving 5 different institutions) since 2016. He was President of the Portuguese Biophysical Society from 2015 to 2021. He has supervised 11 completed PhDs, 8 as main supervisor and 3 as co-supervisor.
Lucia Gemma Delogu, Ph.D., is the head of the ImmuneNano-Lab at the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Padua (UNIPD Padua, Italy) www.delogulab.eu. After acquiring her experience in Immunology and Material Science at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, USA) and at Sanford-Burnham Institute (San Diego, USA), she served as Assistant Professor at the University of Sassari (Italy) and as Visiting Professor at the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD; Dresden, Germany).
Dr. Delogu has been the Scientific Coordinator of two interdisciplinary EU projects, under HORIZON2020, including a RISE project on nanomedicine and immune interactions of nanomaterials, involving more than 10 leading Institutions and high-profile international scientists on nanotechnology and nanomedicine. In this field, she has received several awards, including the “Marie S. Curie Individual Fellow” at TUD under HORIZON2020 from the European Commission, the “200 Young Best Talents of Italy 2011” from the Italian Ministry of Youth, and “Bedside to Bench & Back Award” from the National Institutes of Health, USA. Since 2020, Dr. Delogu is in charge of the Italian chapter and a member of the road map working group of the Advanced Material Global Pandemic & Future Preparedness Taskforce (AMPT) www.amptnetwork.com/. She introduced the “NanoImmunity-by-design” concept, for the design of nanomaterials based not solely on their physicochemical characteristics but also on their immunomodulatory characteristics.
She pioneered the use of systems immunology approach by high-dimensional single-cell strategies in the context of nanomaterial applications. Her research focuses on the biological interactions of nanomaterials and nanoparticles, with a particular focus on their immunomodulation properties, biomedical applications and toxicological profile.
Paula Marques (born 1969) has a first degree in Chemistry (1993), a MSc in Chemistry and Physics Teaching (1997) and a PhD in Materials Science Engineering, with specialization in Biomaterials (2003) from the University of Aveiro (UA) in Portugal.
Paula is a Principal Researcher at TEMA – Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation, Mechanical Engineering Department, UA. Currently is the Deputy-Director for Society and Social Responsibility in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Sub-Director of the research unit TEMA (Centre of Mechanical Technology and Automation) board of Directors, responsible for new areas of specialization.
Her current research interests include the engineering and development of nanostructured multifunctional materials including graphene derivatives such as: (i) mechanical and electrical stimulus responsive 3D graphene-based scaffolds for tissue engineering; (ii) functional graphene-based macrostructures for water remediation; (iii) electrospun graphene/polymer fibres for photocatalysis; (iv) graphene-based materials as mechanical reinforcement of polymer matrixes.
Paula is author of 77+ original research or review papers in international journals (2900+ citations, h=28 – Scopus), about 7 book chapters, 2 books and 3 patents. Paula has been invited to review manuscripts from 30+ different international journals and to evaluate projects from Cost and Era-Net funding agencies. Paula supervised or co-supervised 10 MSc, 12 PhD students, and 8+ post-doctoral fellows. Since April 2019 she is coordinating a FET Open H2020 project, “NeuroStimSpinal: A Step Forward to Spinal Cord Injury Repair Using Innovative Stimulated Nanoengineered Scaffolds". She is also coordinating and co-coordinating several Portuguese Projects obtaining under competitive funding.
Regarding Paula’s pedagogical role, she is the teacher in charge for the 3rd cycle curricular unit Carbon Nanostructures, and teacher of the 2nd cycle curricular unit Technologies and Processes at Nanoscale.
Susana G. Santos did her basic degree in Biology and masters in Molecular Microbiology at the University of Aveiro, before moving to the University of Porto to do her PhD as part of the G.A.B.B.A. program. Her PhD was in the area of immunology, in a collaboration between ICBAS and IBMC at the University of Porto, Portugal and the College of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, Scotland, UK. Then, she performed post-doctoral work in the Medical School, at St Andrews University and later became a Medical Research Council (MRC) Career Development Fellow, at the MRC-Protein Phosphorylation Unit, College of Life Sciences in Dundee. At the end of 2008 she moved back to Porto to work at INEB, on the relation between inflammation and tissue regeneration. She is currently an Assistant Investigator at INEB-i3S, within the Microenvironments for NewTherapies Group. Her current research interests are in modulating the immune and inflammatory responses to develop new therapeutic strategies for tissue repair/regeneration. To accomplish that she has been working on: i) immune cells (e.g. macrophages and dendritic cells) and osteoclasts, their response to biomaterials and communication with bone marrow mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC); ii) in vivo immune and regenerative responses to biomaterials for bone regeneration; iii) the role of extracellular vesicles (including exosomes) in cellular communication during inflammation resolution and tissue regeneration.