The research group of biomaterials and stem cell-based therapeutics was created in January 2008 at CNC. The research group aims at generating fundamental and translational knowledge in the intersection of biomaterials with stem cells. The research group has two main avenues of research: 
1- Disease modeling and drug screening program: in vitro cell/tissue models from human stem cells. Stem cells, in particular induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), may be an excellent source of cells for disease modeling and drug discovery programs related to cardiovascular diseases. The potential of iPSCs to generate disease models led to the creation of several biobanks in USA (Coriell Institute for Medical Research, NIH Center for Regenerative Medicine, ATCC and University owned biobanks), Europe (Cellartis; and an European initiative of Stem cell biobank) and Japan (RIKEN bioresource center) for storage and distribution of iPSC lines originated from patients and healthy controls. In the last 6 years my research group has developed several tissue models from stem cells that may be an important platform for drug discovery programs related to cardiovascular diseases. A particular interest of the group is to develop biomaterials and bioengineering platforms for the efficient maturation/specification of stem cells and their progenies. The research group uses many tools to accomplish this goal, including the design of new biomaterials with relevant biological information, molecular and cell biology, microfluidic systems, high content analysis, and animal experimentation. 

2- Nanomedicine platforms to modulate the activity of stem cells and their progenies. The development of a wide spectrum of nanotechnologies (referred as Nanomedicine by National Institutes of Health for applications in the biomedical area) during the last years are very promising for the study of stem cell biology and to control exogenous and endogenous stem cells for regenerative medicine. Our group is particularly interested to use these tools to induce in vivo stem cell differentiation and to mobilize stem cells from their niches to treat cardiovascular diseases. For this purpose, we are developing nanomaterials that release efficiently biomolecules (small molecules, proteins or non-coding RNAs) to manipulate stem cells or their progenies. 

Keywords

Ageing

Cardiovascular diseases

Stem cells

iPSCs differentiation

Nanomaterials

Research Lines

 

Lino Ferreira PhD, Group Leader		Luís Estronca PhD, Researcher		Hugo Fernandes PhD, Assist. Investigator		Ricardo Neves PhD, Assist. Investigator
Akhilesh Rai PhD, Assist. Investigator		Henrique Vazão Almeida PhD, Researcher		Miguel Lino PhD, Researcher		Patricia Pitrez Pereira PhD, Researcher
Susana Carvalho Rosa PhD, Researcher		Susana Simões PhD, Researcher		Artur Filipe Rodrigues PhD, Post-Doc Fellow		Emanuel Quartin PhD, Post-Doc Fellow
Cristiana Paulo Assistant Researcher		Helena Isabel Reis Aires Assistant Researcher		Tiago Reis Assistant Researcher		Inês Tomé Ribeiro  Assistant Researcher
Arnab Banerjee Junior Researcher		Vitor Francisco Junior Researcher		André Barbosa Assistant Researcher		Andreia Pinheiro Vilaça PhD Student
Angela Barrera PhD Student		Carlos Jesus PhD Student		Catarina Rebelo PhD Student		Deolinda Santinha PhD Student
Francesca Tomatis PhD Student		Inês Maria Cunha Albino PhD Student		Luís Miguel Monteiro PhD Student		Ricardo Abreu PhD Student
Rita Sá Ferreira PhD Student		Sandra Pinhanços PhD Student		Ana Carolina Caetano MSc Student		Inês Marques Morais MSc Student

Marta Filipa Viegas Barão MSc Student		Rafaela Ferrão Assistant Research		Ricardo Casqueiro Assistant Research		Tiago Rondão Research Fellow

Alumini

Ongoing Research Projects 

ERA@UC H2020WIDESPREAD2014
NANOSTEM (CPU0298A01#IV0298)
Nano_Brain 842405 (CPU0298A02#IV0298)
CANCEL STEM (CPF0007006#IV0298)

Publicitação

External Collaborations 

Robert Langer (MIT, Boston, USA) http://web.mit.edu/langerlab/
Jeffrey Karp (Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA) http://www.karplab.net
Magdalena Gotz/Stefan Stricker (Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, Germany) http://www.genom.physiol.med.uni-muenchen.de/research_gr/goetz_group/index.html
Marc Peschanski/Xavier Nissan  http://www.istem.eu/en/about-us/
Perpétua do Ó/Diana Nascimento (I3S) http://www.i3s.up.pt/research-groups/cancer-host-interaction-and-response/microenvironments-new-therapies/person/perpetua-pinto-do-O
Liliana Bernardino (UBI) https://brainrepairgroup.wordpress.com/our-group/
Ana Luisa Carvalho (University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal) http://www.cnbc.pt
João Peça (University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal) http://www.cnbc.pt
João Passos (Mayo Clinic, USA) https://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty/passos-joao-ph-d/bio-20454365
Leon Windt/Paula Costa Martins (Maastricht University) https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/l.dewindt

Funding Agencies 

• FCT
• Horizon 2020
• Portugal 2020

Selected Publications 

Henriques-Antunes, H*, Cardoso, RMS,* Zonari, A, Correia, J, Leal, EC, Jimenez-Balsa, A, Lino, M, Barradas, A, Kostic, I, Gomes, C, Karp, JM, Carvalho, E, Ferreira, L. Orchestrating the release of small extracellular vesicles by a light-triggerable hydrogel. ACS Nano 2019 (in press).

Lino, MM, Simões, S, Vilaça, A, Antunes, H, Zonari, A, Ferreira, L. “Modulation of angiogenic activity by light-activatable miRNA-loaded nanocarriers”. ACS Nano 2018, 12(6), 5207-5220.

Aday, S, Zoldan, J, Besnier, M, Carreto, L, Saif, J, Fernandes, R, Santos, T, Bernardino, L, Langer, R, Emanueli, C*, Ferreira, L*. “Synthetic microparticles conjugated with VEGF165 improve the survival and function of endothelial progenitor cells via microRNA-17 inhibition”. Nature Communications 2017, 8, 747. 

Vazão, H*, Rosa, S*, Barata, T, Costa, R, Pereira, PR, Honório, I, de Vries MR, Papatsenko, D, Benedito, R, Saris, D, Khademhosseini, A, Quax, PH, Pereira, CF, Mercader, N, Fernandes, H, Ferreira, L. “High-throughput identification of small molecules that affect human embryonic vascular development”. PNAS 2017, 114(15), E3022-E3031. *Authors contributed equally. 

Boto, C#, Quartin, E#, Cai, Y, Martin-Lorenzo, A, Cenador, MBG, Pinto, Gupta, SR, Enver, T Sanchez-Garcia, I, Li, D, Neves, R*, Ferreira, L*. “Prolonged intracellular accumulation of light-inducible nanoparticles in leukemia cells allows their remote activation”. Nature Communications 2017, 8:15204. *,# Authors contributed equally. 

Pereira, MJN, Oyuang, B, Sunbdback, CA, Lang, N, Friehs I, Mureli S, Pomerantseva, I, McFadden J, Mochel, MC, Mwizerwa, O, del Nido, P, Sarkar, D, Masiakos, PT, Langer, R, Ferreira, LS*, Karp, JM*. “A highly tunable biocompatible and multifunctional biodegradable elastomer”. Advanced Materials 2013, 25(8), 1209-1215. *Authors contributed equally.