THE NANOMEDICINE TEAM
João Conde, PhD
João Conde is a Group Leader, Professor and Vice-Dean for Research at NOVA Medical School, NOVA Medical Research, Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. He holds a Habilitation (Agregação) in Biomedicine (2023), with a specialization in Precision Medicine and Oncogenomics. His expertise spans oncogenomics, nanomedicine and gene therapy, with a strong focus on precision medicine in oncology. In 2013, he received his PhD in Biology with a specialization in NanoBiotechnology from the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and the Universidad de Zaragoza as part of the FP7 European Consortium NanoScieE+-NanoTruck for the development of multifunctional gold nanoparticles for gene silencing. Following that, he was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Harvard-MIT Division for Health Sciences and Technology, and Queen Mary University of London's School of Engineering and Materials Science. From 2017 to 2019, he was a Junior Investigator at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular. In 2019, he won an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council (1.5M€) to build a genetic biobarcode to profile breast cancer heterogeneity. He is also a co-founder of the biotech company TargTex, Targeted Therapeutics for Glioblastoma Multiforme (Funding ~18M€, European Innovation Council Accelerator - 14M€). Since 2020, he is also a Senior Collaborator of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Consortium from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington. In 2023, he partnered with Vector Bioscience Cambridge and AstraZeneca to develop RNA-based cancer therapies from the European Innovation Council Transition (2.5M€). In 2023, was elected for the Scientific Advisory Board of FCT: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. Since 2024, he has been on the Scientific Advisory board of Vector Bioscience Cambridge. In 2025, NOVA Medical School was awarded ~6.5M€ (FEDER and Haddad Foundation) to build a preclinical-to-clinical hub and a medical innovation center with João Conde as one of the scientific coordinators.
The main aspects related to the recognition and diffusion of his early contributions are: more than 145 articles in journals of Cancer Therapy, Oncology, Nanotechnology/Materials Science and NanoMedicine (The Lancet, Nature Materials, The Lancet Oncology, Nature Nanotechnology, JAMA Oncology, Nature Communications, The Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol, Nature Rev Methods Primers, PNAS, The Lancet Neurology, Nature Rev Bioengineering, The Lancet Public Health, Accounts of Chemical Research, The Lancet Child Adolesc Health, Progress in Materials Science, ACS Nano, Advanced Materials, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Science, Trends in Cancer, Trends in Biotechnology, Biomaterials, etc), more than 30 articles are as 1st author and nearly 70 articles as corresponding author and cited more than 17.500 times (h-index 58). Nearly 40 of them have been selected as cover pages for journals such as Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology (COVID-19 Special Issue), The Lancet, The Lancet Oncology, Nature Reviews Materials, The Lancet Public Health, ACS Nano, JAMA Oncology, JACC, Matter, Nano Letters, Adv. Functional Materials, Matter, Trends in Cancer, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, ACS Central Science, ACS Sensors, Biomaterials Science, ACS Applied Bio Mat, Adv. Healthcare Materials, Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry, and BioTechniques. In addition, 12 international patents on nanomaterials-based platforms for cancer therapy and diagnosis were submitted and/or approved. He was also awarded several international awards, including the 2023 and 2022 World’s Top 2% Scientists list by Stanford University, the Nanomaterials 2020 Young Investigator Award, the 2021 Biomaterials Science Emerging Investigator, the Top 2% Most cited in Nanoscience/ Nanotechnology from PLOS Biology, the Wellcome Image Awards 2017, the Nano-Micro Letters Researcher Award, and the National Cancer Institute Image Award.
Principal Investigator
THE TEAM
Postdoctoral Researchers
Bárbara B. Mendes, PhD
Bárbara B. Mendes has a PhD in Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cells, from University of Minho (Portugal) in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania (USA). She is the first-author and co-author of more than 10 full length papers published in international scientific journals, 3 book chapters, 8 oral communications and 19 poster presentations. In addition, she is inventor of 1 international patent. She has an h-index of 17 according to Google Scholar, and 11 for Scopus, and her work was cited more than 1400 times.
For nearly five years, she has been researching and engineering intrinsically bioactive systems as mimics of the native extracellular matrix that find multiple research and clinical applications in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering field. She is conducting research work in a multidisciplinary ground, from biomaterials, drug delivery to gene therapy.
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Jordi Martinez-Esain, PhD
Jordi Martínez obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2018 from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Materials Science Institute of Barcelona (ICMAB) under the supervision of Dr. Yáñez (UAB), Dr. Ricart (ICMAB), and Dr. Faraudo (ICMAB). During his PhD, he studied the surface chemistry of metal fluoride nanocrystals, combining experimental design with computational studies to understand their behavior and self-assembly properties. After completing his PhD, Jordi focused on Metal-Organic Frameworks and Metal-Organic Polyhedra, working on their design, synthesis, and all-atomistic simulations to understand their properties and applications in the NanoUp group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). Currently, he joined Conde Lab to study the use of Metal-Organic Polyhedra as carriers for hydrogel based gas-therapy against glioblastoma.
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Jiemin Wang, PhD
Jiemin Wang holds a PhD in Medicine from the Regenerative Medicine Institute, School of Medicine, University of Galway, Ireland. He has published over 20 scientific papers, including nine as the first author, co-first author, or corresponding author. His research has received over 1,000 citations, with an h-index of 15 according to Google Scholar. His recent work focuses on pharmaceutical formulation and biocompatibility, cell therapy, and the immunosuppressive properties of the tumor microenvironment. He was awarded the ERA Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship to work in Conde NanoLab in hydrogels for cancer therapy and drug delivery.
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PhD Students
Catarina Martins, MSc
Catarina Martins graduated in Forensic and Criminal Sciences at Egas Moniz, in 2018. She obtained her master´s degree in Biotechnology at the Faculty of Science and Technology of University of Lisbon (FCT) in 2021. As a result of the work in the laboratory, a review article was published, “Gold Nanoparticles for Vectorization of Nucleic Acids for Cancer Therapeutics”. She was in two research grants, one in CENIMAT related to the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in biological samples and one in INSA related to a European project: “Enhancing whole genome sequencing (WGS) and/or Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) national infrastructures and capacities to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic in the European Union and European Economic Area”. Recently she gained a PhD scholarship from Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology, under the supervision of Prof. João Conde at NMS and Prof. Luiz Liz-Marzán at CIC biomaGUNE, titled “Multilayer hydrogel microneedles for colorectal cancer Nanotherapeutics: A combinatory therapy solution”.
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Diana Sousa, MSc
Diana Sousa graduated in Biochemistry and obtained a Master degree in Biochemistry for Health at NOVA School of Science and Technology of the NOVA University. She worked for three years as a research fellow in different labs in the fields of Medical and Health Sciences with emphasis on Immunology, Cell Biology, Glycobiology and Cancer Therapeutics and acquired experience in antibody development and characterization, cell line manipulation and immune cell isolation/differentiation, focusing on immunomodulatory processes. She is also interested in the development of anti-cancer targeted therapeutics and diagnosis tools using nanobiomaterials and is currently pursuing her PhD in Biomedicine at the Conde Lab working on the project "Gold-nanoconjugates as an approach to target microRNAs and immune-infiltrating cells involved in lung cancer progression", which aims to develop a therapeutic strategy using gold-nanobeacons as vectors for controlled and efficient silencing of endogenous microRNAs involved in lung cancer and to evaluate its effects alone and in combination with immunomodulatory strategies.
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Jhenifer Oliveira, MSc
Jhenifer Oliveira graduated in Biochemistry at NOVA School of Science and Technology – UNL in 2018. She obtained her Master's degree in Biochemistry for Health at ITQB/FCT – UNL in 2021. Her dissertation project consisted of implementing and optimizing a 3D hepatic cell model and was performed at the Advanced Cell Models laboratory – iBET, under the supervision of Doctor Catarina Brito. During this project, she acquired experience in cell culture, 3D cell culture, fluorescence microscopy, image analysis and flow cytometry data analysis. Recently, she joined Conde Lab as a PhD student in Biomedicine and will be working on the synthesis and characterization of hybrid nanoparticles and hydrogels for local therapy of breast cancer, as well as on the evaluation of the therapeutic efficacy and the profiling of tumour heterogeneity.
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Pedro Ribeiro, MSc
Pedro Ribeiro graduated in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in 2018. At the same faculty, he obtained a Master's degree in Medical Biochemistry. His dissertation project consisted of evaluating the differences in extracellular vesicles derived from the liver in different metabolic states and was performed with the Medir Lab group in Nova Medical School Research, under the supervision of Doctor Rita Machado de Oliveira. Recently, Pedro started the PhD in Biomedicine, continuing the extracellular vesicles project developed in the master’s degree but now with a translational research aspect by including nanoparticles as a therapeutic perspective, under the supervision of Professor João Conde.
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Master Students
Rita Rafael, BSc
Rita Rafael holds a Bachelor's degree in Medicinal Biotechnology from the Escola Superior da Guarda. She completed her internship at the Champalimaud Foundation, where she had her first contact with extracellular vesicles derived from prostate cancer cells in the "Systems Oncology" group. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Biomaterials and Nanomedicine at the Faculty of Science and Technology of NOVA University Lisbon. With a longstanding interest in the field of cancer, her goal is to contribute to scientific innovation and the development of new therapeutic strategies. Recently, she joined the Conde Lab as a Master's researcher, where she is focused on the development and characterization of dendritic and lipid-based nanoparticles for localized breast cancer therapy, assessing their therapeutic efficacy and tumor heterogeneity profile.
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Emily Rohrmoser, BSc
Emily Rohrmoser completed her Bachelor's degree in Biology and Molecular Biology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. In 2023, she began her Master's studies in Biomedical Research at Nova Medical School in Lisbon. Since September 2024, she has been conducting her Master's thesis at the Conde NanoLab, focusing on the development of nanoparticles for the local treatment of breast cancer and the evaluation of their therapeutic efficacy.
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Joana Coutinho, BSc
Joana Coutinho is a master's student in Biomedical Engineering at Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, where I also completed my bachelor's degree in Biomedical Technology. Currently, she is conducting the thesis project at NMS on the 'Development of fibrillar hydrogels to study the mechanical stiffness of breast cancer subtypes and therapeutic responses. She is passionate about cancer research and biomaterials, particularly 3D models that can mimic tumor tissues and microenvironments, which she believes represents a significant scientific advancement in better understanding and treating diseases
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Beatriz Matos, BSc
Beatriz Matos is finishing a Master's Degree in Micro and Nanotechnologies Engineering at SST-NOVA. During this time, her bachelor's project was conducted in the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), on the Medical Devices Research Group, in the field of Microfluidics and Liquid Biopsy. Currently, she is pursuing her master’s thesis in CENIMAT and Conde NanoLab, focusing on the development of conductive microgels based on GelMA and MXenes, fabricated with microfluidic devices for enhancing tumor permeabilization. In the future, Beatriz intends to work in the field of nanomedicine, using nanotechnology and its advances to investigate new approaches of diagnosing and treating diseases, such as cancer.
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Bruna Franco, BSc
Bruna Franco graduated in Biological Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, in 2023. Recently she joined Luís Costa Lab (Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine - GIMM) in a collaboration with João Conde Lab (NMS) to obtain her Master’s degree in Biological Engineering at the same institution, under the supervision of Dr. Sandra Casimiro and Dr. Bárbara Mendes, respectively. Her work focuses on producing trackable nanoparticles for targeted delivery of anti-RANK siRNA and RANK-TRAF6 binding peptide as a breast cancer treatment.
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External PhD Students
Diana Peixoto, MSc
Diana Peixoto completed the Integrated Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) in 2020. Currently, Diana is a PhD Student under the supervision of Prof. Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Prof. Ana Cláudia Paiva-Santos from the University of Coimbra (Portugal), and Prof. João Conde from the NOVA Medical School (Portugal), with a PhD scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (2021.05914.BD, ranked fifth place among 89 applications submitted). Her passion for scientific research has been the driving force behind her academic and professional choices. Diana has chosen this path due to the vastness of unsolved questions in the medical and health sciences fields, particularly the ones related to cancer. Thereby, her research interests are related to the nanomedicine field, especially in the study of innovative nanotechnological approaches for cancer treatment. Currently, Diana working on Pancreatic Cancer-targeted nano-based, multimodal, and biomimetic strategies for improved therapeutics.
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João Pais, MSc
João Pais has a Master in Biotechnology from the University of Beira Interior (Faculty of Health Sciences). His dissertation focused in the development of a lab platform to biosynthesize and purify a recombinant macromolecule, a protein of interest in the prostate cancer therapeutic, developed at the Health Sciences Research Center (CICS), at University of Beira Interior. After that, he worked for two years as research fellow in the Neurologic and Neurovascular Disorders research group, also at CICS. During that period, he focused in the study of the structure and function of a therapeutic target for ischemic stroke. Joao gathered experience in molecular biology, protein synthesis and purification, cell culture and cell isolation. Joao is pursuing his PhD in chemical engineering and will be working in the development of bio-based formulations for the stabilization of mRNA vaccines, allowing preservation with no need of a cold chain, contributing to a universal distribution by overcoming their instability at room temperature.
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Leonardo Di Fillipo, MSc
Leonardo D. Di Filippo holds a bachelor degree in Pharmacy-Biochemistry (2019) from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the São Paulo State University (UNESP, Brazil). At the same institution, he obtained a master's degree (2021) and is currently a PhD student enrolled in the postgraduate program in Pharmaceutical Sciences, where he is developing nanostructured formulations for intranasal administration of anti-neoplastic drugs as an alternative for the treatment of brain cancer. His main areas of expertise include pharmaceutical technology, active targeting of nanoparticles, and in vivo models of brain cancer.
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Alumni
Rajendra Prasad, PhD
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Tufts University, Boston US
Joana Amorim, MSc
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FCT-NOVA
Cristina Volpini
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PhD Student at Università degli Studi di Pavia
Alessia Privitera
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MSc Student at Università degli Studi di Pavia
Alazne Moreno
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Fellow in IDIBAPS/Hospital Clinic
João Ravasco
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Medical writer at AstraZeneca
João Conniot
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Clinician at ULS Hospital São José
Marta Santos
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Management Business Analyst at AXA GO Portugal
Mariana Pereira
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Nova Medical School - Tenreiro Lab
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