Bioinspired Materials for Medical Applications

Ligia Rodrigues graduated in Biological Engineering at University of Minho (UM), Portugal, in 1997. She obtained her MSc and PhD degree in 2001 and 2005, respectively at UM. In 2006/2007 she was a post-doctoral research fellow at three different universities (UM; University of Porto, Portugal; University of Lund, Sweden). From 2007 to 2011 she was an Invited Assistant Professor at the Department of Biological Engineering, UM. Since 2007 she has been involved in the MIT-Portugal program. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the same department and conducts her research activities at the Centre of Biological Engineering (CEB-UM).Her research interests in direct relation with Biomaterials are focused on cell-material interactions, namely on the development of biomaterials that can inhibit the adhesion of microorganisms to apply in implantable devices (e.g. voice prostheses); development of new biocompatible materials that enable an adequate adhesion and proliferation of human cells (e.g. bacterial cellulose supports for transplantation of retinal epithelium cells for further application in age macular degeneration disease); and synthetic biology strategies to develop new particles (viral or polymeric) that can specifically target cancer cells and effectively deliver drug agents.Ligia Rodrigues has published 101 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and books, and 10 refereed papers in international conference proceedings. Manuel Mota is Emeritus Professor of Biotechnology at the Department of Biological Engineering of the University of Minho. He was Director of the Biological Eng Research Centre of University of Minho (CEBUM)/IBB (Institute of Biotechnology & Bioengineering) between 1998 and 2012.His research interests in direct relation with Biomaterials are focused on the interaction between the complex geometry of anisotropic porous media and the associated transport properties, which have consequences in several separation systems and also in the transport of bio-molecules across cell tissues.Manuel Mota has published 187 papers in International Scientific Magazines, 54 International book chapters and 61 refereed papers in Proceedings.