Studying liver disease in 3D liver models

Associate Professor and Consultant in Internal Medicine and Hepatology at University Hospital of Padova (Italy)

Joana obtained her PhD in Biotechnology from the ITQB, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (PT) in 2006, having performed her studies (2002-2006) at the Research Center Borstel/Leibniz Lung Center (DE), in the field of biomolecular diagnostic.

After a postdoc at the Animal Cell Technology Unit at IBET, Oeiras (PT) focusing in Tissue Engineering and 3D liver models, in 2009 she moved to imed/Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon (FFUL) to pursue her interests in 3D models, stem cell biology for predictive toxicology and regenerative medicine.

In 2018 she became a professor FFUL and in 2021 she was appointed group leader at the Research Institute of Medicines (imed). Her group is conducting translational research in the field of toxicology and regenerative medicine. One of the main research interests of his group is assessing the potential of stem cells for biomedical and biotechnological applications and particularly to develop 3D organotypic in vitro systems for disease modeling and drug development.

Joana is also a board member of the Portuguese Society of Stem Cells and Cell Therapy (SPCE-TC), is the National Co-coordinator of the European Registered Toxicologist since 2017, is the Chair of the Communication Subcommittee of EUROTOX and has served as coordinator of the toxicology section of the Portuguese Society of Pharmacology (SPF) until 2019.