People

NOVA School of Science and Technology

Lisbon, Portugal

Cecília Roque

Project Coordinator

Cecilia Roque is coordinating the PURE project.

She is an Associate Professor in Bioengineering at the Chemistry Department, School of Science & Technology at NOVA University (Lisbon, Portugal). Cecilia is a principal researcher at UCIBIO-NOVA and leads the Biomolecular Engineering Lab. She holds a degree in Chemical Engineering (Major in Biotechnology) & a PhD in Biotechnology from Instituto Superior Técnico, and has an Habilitation in Bioengineering from NOVA University of Lisbon.

Her research focus on bioengineering, namely on the development of advanced functional materials that combine novel affinity receptors with bio-based and sustainable materials for bioseparation and biosensing.

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Margarida Dias

Researcher

I am a bioengineer passionate about protein engineering for different applications in Biotechnology, e.g. purification, therapeutics, and materials. In my career both at academia and industry, I always pursued a multidisciplinary approach, combining different methodologies from diverse fields e.g. chemistry, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology. I believe that this approach is essential to develop novel protein-based products. As well, this will lead to technologies that can be transferred from academia to industry, which will have an economic and social impact in everyday life!

Currently, I am interested in applying my knowledge and experience in academia and industry to projects in protein engineering for novel marine based-materials. I am a team member in projects that develop novel materials for biosensing and purification.

I look forward to contributing with my expertise in discovery of novel affinity reagents for bioseparation in PURE project. I will take part in the design of in vitro evolution and discovery strategies, as well as in the early development of novel biological affinity reagents for separation of biotherapeutics.

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Paula Urze

Professor

Paula Urze holds a Ph.D. in Economic and Organizational Sociology (School of Economics and Management, ISEG/UL). Since April 2018 she is head of the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, NOVA University of Lisbon (FCT NOVA), Associate Professor (2020) in the same Department and researcher at the Interuniversity Centre for the History of Science and Technology (CIUHCT).

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Carlos Costa

PhD Student

PhD student. Previously completed the BSc in Cell and Molecular Biology and the MSc in Biochemistry at NOVA School of Science and Technology. During the Master's Thesis, worked at the Bionano Research Laboratory of UCIBIO (Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit), using a multidisciplinary approach to study the interaction between blood serum proteins and spherical gold nanoparticles as a potential novel diagnostics technique based on the analysis of disease-specific blood serum protein profiles manifested as a protein corona formed on the surface of spherical gold nanoparticles upon exposure to a blood serum sample.

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Arménio Barbosa

Researcher

Arménio Barbosa holds a PhD in Multiscale Modeling at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore), IT, and a Degree in Biochemistry at the University of Porto, PT. Dr. Barbosa is currently a Researcher in Computational Chemistry at the NOVA School of Science and Technology (NOVA). He held three post-doctoral research positions in drug discovery at Unimore (2010); in computational approaches for the development of anticancer drug targets at the University of Bologna, Italy (2011-2014), in computational enzyme design and proteins for gas sensing at NOVA (2015-2018). In 2009 he was a visiting PhD student at Maria João Ramos’ group at the University of Porto.

Dr. Barbosa research interests are in multiscale modelling of small molecules, proteins and biomaterials.

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Fernanda Lussá

Professor

Fernanda Llussá (female) is currently an Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at the Social Sciences Department, NOVA School of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal. Llussá holds a PhD in Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, USA) and a Master´s degree in Business Economics (FGV-SP, Brazil). She also held a visiting position on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Deshpande Entrepreneurship Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIT Portugal.

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Henrique Costa

PhD Student

Henrique Costa is a PhD student in Biotechnology at FCT-NOVA, with a background in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. His PhD project is focused on the development of novel biomaterials to be used as sustainable alternatives in downstream processing applications. He worked as a research assistant for 1 year under the SCENT ERC Project, and has experience in volatolomics, gas sensors, humidity and sensitivity. As a researcher, his main interests reside in biomaterials, green chemistry, and sustainability.

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University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences

Vienna, Austria

Alois Jungbauer

Team Coordinator

Professor Alois Jungbauer received his PhD in Food Technology and Biotechnology from BOKU. He is head of the Institute of Process Science and Engineering at BOKU. He teaches Protein Technology, Downstream Processing and Bioprocess Engineering and is study director of the Ph.D. program Bioprocess Engineering. He also acts as deputy area head of Bioprocessing Engineering and Deputy Director of Research in the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology. He is currently working in the field of bioprocess engineering of proteins, plasmids and viruses. He has published 340 papers on recombinant protein production, bioseparation and advanced materials for bioprocess enginering, 17 patents and 12 book contributions and recently a monograph entitled “Protein Chromatography, Process Development and Scale Up”. He is executive editor of Biotechnology Journal. He acts also as the vice president of research of the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Science.

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Rupert Tscheliessnig

Researcher

My name is Rupert Tscheliessnig. I received my PhD in surface sciences from Vienna University of Technology, Austria. In the past years I dedicated my scientific work to the idea: to measure what is measurable and access what cannot be measured. Pair densities are the common ground of molecular modelling and scattering techniques and Cryo EM imaging.

I linked both the concepts to access molecular mechanism of proteins adsorption at surfaces of industrial relevance. Both concepts are mathematical based: molecular modelling and wet lab experiments.

I am involved in two doctoral programs at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. I currently take a MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at the WU Exectuive Academy. In this respect, and in respect the way PURE is organised I am very happy to join this project.

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Claudia Lacombe

PhD Student

Claudia Lacombe completed her Master’s degree in mid-2019. She worked within a partnership between the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology in Graz, Austria and the University of Bayreuth, Germany. She is now joining the European PURE project as a PhD candidate at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU).

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Birgit Wiltchi

Principal Investigator

Birgit Wiltschi received a PhD in Biochemistry from Graz University of Technology in Austria. She continued her scientific work as a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany and afterwards was a group leader at the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany. Currently, she is a principal investigator in PURE at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. In addition, she heads the Synthetic Biology Group at the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology in Graz, Austria and she is a principal investigator of the BioTechMed-Graz flagship project 'DYNIMO - Dynamics of Subcellular Partitioning through Protein Modification'. Her research focusses on the engineering of proteins using unnatural amino acids, for instance to introduce site-selective bioorthogonal protein modifications.

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Alexander Zollner

PhD Student

My name is Alexander Zollner and I am a 26-year-old student from Austria. I am about to finish my Master’s degree in Biotechnology at the University of Life Sciences Vienna in early 2021. During my studies I have particularly gained experience in analytics and biotechnological up- and downstream processing. Immediately after my graduation I will start working for the 2020 Horizon project PURE as a PhD student, and so I am looking forward to contributing to the success of our competitive and ambitious programme. Besides my university studies I really love travelling and exploring different countries and cultures. In addition to German, my mother tongue, I am fluent in English and Italian and always keen on learning new languages. Thus, I am highly motivated and even enthusiastic about taking part in a Europe-wide project, which combines my passion for both science and international exchange.

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Bayreuth University

Bayreuth, Germany

Thomas Scheibel

Team Coordinator

Prof. Dr. Thomas Scheibel is full professor for Biomaterials as well as Vice President for internationalization, gender equality and diversity at the University of Bayreuth. Since 2014 he is a member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). He initiated and chairs the topical committee on “Bioinspired and interactive materials” at the Germen Materials Society (DGM), is chairman of the Bayreuth-Melbourne Colloid & Polymer network, co-chairman of the TranregioSFB TRR225 “Biofabrication”, Member of the review board “biomaterials” of the DFG, Advisory Board Member of German Association for Resource Efficiency and Additive Manufacturing (GRAT), co-founder and shareholder of AMSilk GmbH, groupleader of the Neue Materialien Bayreuth GmbH (NMB), and Director of BayHost (Bavarian Academic Center for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe).

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Charlotte Leonhardt

MSc Student

Charlotte Leonhardt (B.Sc.) completed the Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biotechnology at the Dresden University of Technology. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Bayreuth, where she specialized in recombinant proteins. During her master’s thesis, which is part of the PURE project, she focuses on the production and analysis of biopolymers. Beyond that, she is involved in the processing of the biopolymers and has acquired expertise in protein modification and bioconjugation techniques.

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Christoph Sommer

PhD Student

Christoph Sommer (M.Sc.) started his studies in Engineering Science in 2013 at the University of Bayreuth. Besides his passion for engineering he had a huge interest in the fields of biology, biochemistry and biotechnology.

After earning his Master´s Degree in biotechnology and chemical engineering in Bayreuth he entered the research world to explore the passion for Biomaterials and Protein Engineering. Currently, he works as a phD for the chair of biomaterials, where he is focused on fiber processing and morphology optimization. During his studies and research in Bachelor and Master Thesis he gained considerable experience with processing techniques that form fibers out of protein solutions. Therefore, his expertise benefits the production of filter devices within the PURE project.

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iBET

Lisbon, Portugal.

Manuel Carrondo

Team Coordinator

Prof Manuel Carrondo,(Expert Advisor Biotherapeutic Manufacture, IBET) Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Univ Nova de Lisboa. Professor Carrondo is graduated in chemical engineering from Universidade do Porto, Portugal (1971). He worked at Tuborg Brewery (Copenhagen) and Galp Oil Refinery (Porto) as a chemical engineer and at Plano (Lisboa) as a project designer. In 1979 he obtained a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Imperial College London. After his Habilitation in 1991 he became a Full Professor at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in biochemical engineering. In 1985 he created IBET as an interface to transfer to industry/economy the knowledge existing in some chemical/biological/chemical engineering departments in the three Lisbon Universities.

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Ricardo Silva

Researcher

Ricardo Silva is a Senior Scientist at iBET – Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (Oeiras, Portugal) working in the Downstream Processes Lab, and more recently at the Late-stage R&D Bioproduction Unit. He holds a PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2013), with a specialization in process simulation and optimization. His current research focus on continuous processing of bio therapeutical products, with particular emphasis in viral vectors for vaccine and gene therapy applications.

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Cristina Peixoto

Researcher

Cristina Peixoto graduated in Applied Chemistry New University of Lisbon (UNL) and she holds a PhD in Engineering Sciences from Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica Biológica (ITQB) UNL. Working in Animal Cell Technology since 1996, her PhD contributed to the establishment of several scalable purification processes for complex biopharmaceuticals, mainly virus and VLPs for vaccine and gene therapy. Since 2009 she is the Head of the Downstream Process Development lab at Animal Cell Technology Unit of iBET. Coordinated more than 12 research contract projects with Industrial partners, some of the processes developed are nowadays in GMP for phase I and II. She was PI in 2 FCT projects and invited lecturer in PhD and Master Programs. She published over 60 manuscripts in refereed international journals.

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People

NOVA School of Science and Technology

Cecília Roque

Margarida Dias

Paula Urze

Carlos Costa

Arménio Barbosa

Fernanda Lussá

Henrique Costa

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences

Alois Jungbauer

Rupert Tscheliessnig

Claudia Lacombe

Birgit Wiltchi

Alexander Zollner

Bayreuth University

Thomas Scheibel

Charlotte Leonhardt

Christoph Sommer

iBET

Manuel Carrondo

Ricardo Silva

Cristina Peixoto

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