SCERG Banner

Associate Professor

Education and Training

PhD in Biotechnology, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 1998

MSc in Biochemical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 1991

Diploma in Biology, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Portugal, 1988

Research activities

My research is focused on the design and manufacturing of plasmid and minicircles biopharmaceuticals, to be used as DNA vaccines and gene therapy vectors for transient cell modification.

Selected publications

Serra, J., Alves, C.P.A., Brito, L., Monteiro, G.A., Cabral, J.M.S., Prazeres, D.M.F., da Silva, C.L. Engineering of human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC) with VEGF-encoding minicircles for angiogenic ex vivo gene therapy. Hum Gene Ther doi:10.1089/hum.2018.154 [Epub ahead of print] (2018).

Alves, C.P.A., Šimčíková, M., Brito, L., Monteiro, G.A., Prazeres, D.M.F. Production and purification of supercoiled minicircles by a combination of in vitro endonuclease nicking and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. Hum Gene Ther Methods 29:157-168 (2018).

Šimčíková, M., Alves, C.P.A., Brito, L., Prather, K.L.J., Prazeres, D.M.F., Monteiro, G.A. Improvement of DNA minicircle production by optimization of the secondary structure of the 5'-UTR of ParA resolvase. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100:6725-6737 (2016).

Matos, J.C., Soares, A.R., Domingues, I., Monteiro, G.A., Gonçalves, M.C. ORMOPLEXEs for gene therapy: in vitro and in vivo assays. Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl 63:546-553 (2016).

Šimčíková, M., Prather, K.L.J., Prazeres, D.M.F., Monteiro, G.A. Towards effective non-viral gene delivery vector. Biotechnol Genet Eng Rev 31:82-107 (2016).