MARGARIDA DIOGO

Assistant Professor

E-mail: margarida.diogo@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Education and Training

Research Scientist, Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (IBB), Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2008-2013

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Bioengineering Research Group (BERG), Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2004-2008

PhD in Biotechnology, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2004

MSc in Biotechnology (Biochemical Engineering), Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 1999

Diploma in Industrial Chemistry, University of Beira Interior, Portugal, 1997

Research activities

My current research activities are focused on the development of neural and cardiac differentiation models from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), in particular human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), and their application for disease modeling, for studying the effects of drugs and to perform toxicology assays. To support these activities, I am also interested in developing scalable culture platforms, especially under 3D conditions, for the highly-controlled neural and cardiac differentiation of hiPSC, mainly under chemically-defined conditions, and their integration with isolation and purification strategies, envisaging further development of bioprocesses for the large scale production of hiPSC derivatives.

Selected publications

Miranda, C.C., Fernandes, T.G., Pinto, S.N., Prieto, M., Diogo, M.M., Cabral, J.M.S. A scale out approach towards neural induction of human induced pluripotent stem cells for neurodevelopmental toxicity studies. Toxicol Lett 294:51-60 (2018).

Pascoal, J.F., Fernandes, T.G., Nierode, G.J., Diogo, M.M., Dordick, J.S., Cabral, J.M.S. Three-Dimensional Cell-Based Microarrays: Printing Pluripotent Stem Cells into 3D Microenvironments. Methods Mol Biol 1771:69-81 (2018).

Dias, T.P., Pinto, S.N., Santos, J.I., Fernandes, T.G., Fernandes, F., Diogo, M.M., Prieto, M., Cabral, J.M.S. Biophysical study of human induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived cardiomyocyte structural maturation during long-term culture. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 499(3):611-617 (2018).

Rodrigues, G.M.C., Gaj, T., Adil, M.M., Wahba, J., Rao, A.T., Lorbeer, F.K., Kulkarni, R.U., Diogo M.M., Cabral, J.M.S., Miller, E.W., Hockemeyer, D., Schaffer, D.V. Defined and Scalable Differentiation of Human Oligodendrocyte Precursors from Pluripotent Stem Cells in a 3D Culture System. Stem Cell Rep 8(6):1770-1783 (2017).

Badenes, S.M., Fernandes, T.G., Miranda, C.C., Pusch-Klein, A., Haupt, S., Rodrigues, C.A.V., Diogo, M.M., Brüstle, O., Cabral, J.M.S. Long-term expansion of human induced pluripotent stem cells in a microcarrier-based dynamic system. J Chem Technol Biotechnol 92:492-503 (2017).

Badenes, S.M., Fernandes, T.G., Cordeiro, C.S.M., Boucher, S., Kuninger, D., Vemuri, M.C., Diogo, M.M., Cabral, J.M.S. Defined essential 8™ medium and vitronectin efficiently support scalable xeno-free expansion of human induced pluripotent stem cells in stirred microcarrier culture systems. PLoS One 11:e0151264 (2016).

Fernandes, T.G., Duarte, S.T., Ghazvini, M., Gaspar, C., Santos, D.C., Porteira, A.R., Rodrigues, G.M.C., Haupt, S., Rombo, D.M., Armstrong, J., Sebastião, A.M., Gribnau, J., Garcia-Cazorla, A., Brüstle, O., Henrique, D., Cabral, J.M.S., Diogo, M.M. Neural commitment of human pluripotent stem cells under defined conditions recapitulates neural development and generates patient-specific neural cells. Biotechnol J 10(10):1587-1588 (2015).

Miranda, C.M., Fernandes, T.G., Pascoal, J.F., Haupt, S., Brüstle, O., Cabral, J.M.S., Diogo, M.M. Spatial and temporal control of cell aggregation efficiently directs human pluripotent stem cells towards neural commitment. Biotechnol J 10(10):1612-1624 (2015).

Meli, L., Barbosa, H.S., Hickey, A.M., Gasimli, L., Nierode, G., Diogo, M.M., Linhardt, R.J., Cabral, J.M., Brüstle, O. Three dimensional cellular microarray platform for human neural stem cell differentiation and toxicology. Stem Cell Res 13(1):36-47 (2014).

Rodrigues G.M.C., Matos A.F.S., Fernandes T.G., Rodrigues C.A.V., Peitz M., Haupt S., Diogo M.M., Brüstle O., Cabral J.M.S. Integrated Platform for Production and Purification of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Neural Precursors. Stem Cell Rev Rep 10(2):151-161 (2014).