TIAGO FERNANDES

Assistant Professor

E-mail: tfernandes@ist.utl.pt

Education and Training

Research Associate, Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2016

Post-Doctorate, Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2010-2015

PhD in Biotechnology, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2009

Diploma in Biological Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2004

Research activities

My work is focused on providing an integrated platform that brings together engineering and biology in order to accelerate progress towards designing the stem cell fate and its microenvironment. The development of artificial cellular niches for studying the mechanisms that affect human stem cell pluripotency is of foremost importance and represents a major goal of my research. Human embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are used as model systems to establish in vitro artificial microenvironments that better mimic the extracellular environment. In addition to the influence of mechanical and matrix-related responses, the effects of microenvironmental conditions (e.g. small molecules and growth factors) have been extensively studied due to their capacity to modulating intracellular pathways. This systems-based approach is expected to contribute for the development of innovative cell culture models that better reflect in vivo function, and the final goal is to generate cells and tissues to advance our understanding of biology and tissue regeneration, which will lead to further development of cell-based therapies.

Selected publications

Miranda, C.C., Fernandes, T.G., Diogo, M.M., Cabral, J.M.S. Towards Multi-Organoid Systems for Drug Screening Applications. Bioengineering (Basel) 5(3). pii: E49 (2018).

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).

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).

Miranda, C.C., Fernandes, T.G., Diogo, M.M., Cabral, J.M.S. Scaling up a chemically-defined aggregate-based suspension culture system for neural commitment of human pluripotent stem cells. Biotechnol J 11(12):1628-1638 (2016).

Badenes, S.M., Fernandes, T.G., Cordeiro, C.S., 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(3):e0151264 (2016).