Research Assistant, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2016-2017
MSc in Biological Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2016
BSc in Biological Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2014
One of the main bottlenecks in the translation of stem cells to therapy is the difficulty in generating clinical numbers of these cells. 2D protocols, which are still widely used in culture of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and their derivatives, are very labour intensive and expose cells to different conditions than those they will be subjected in vivo. As such, I am particularly interested in how to adapt standard Bioprocess Engineering principles to stem cells, in order to be able to produce clinical-grade and scale derivatives of hiPSCs with the potential to be used a wide range of biomedical applications. In particular, my work at SCERG consists in the characterisation of novel bioreactor configurations and in their usage for highly efficient differentiation of hiPSCs, integrated, if necessary, with downstream processing of these cells for removal of undifferentiated hiPSCs with tumorigenic potential, along with other contaminant cell types, whose effects in the target organs are unpredictable.
Rodrigues, C.A.V., Nogueira, D.E.S., Cabral, J.M.S. Next-Generation Stem Cell Expansion Technologies. Cell Gene Therapy Insights 4(8):791-804 (2018).
Rodrigues, C.A.V., Branco, M., Nogueira, D.E.S., Silva, T.P., Gomes, A.R., Diogo, M.M., Cabral, J.M.S. Bioreactors for Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Expansion and Differentiation, in Bioreactors for Stem Cell Expansion and Differentiation, (J.M.S. Cabral & C. Lobato da Silva, Eds.), CRC Press, ISBN 9781498795906 (2018).
Rodrigues, C.A.V., Silva, T.P., Nogueira, D.E.S., Fernandes, T.G., Hashimura, Y., Wesselschmidt, R., Diogo, M.M., Lee, B., Cabral, J.M.S. Scalable Culture Of Human Induced Pluripotent Cells On Microcarriers Under Xeno‐Free Conditions Using Single‐Use Vertical‐Wheel™ Bioreactors. J Chem Technol Biotechnol 93(12):3597-3606 (2018).
