Bio
Ana Rita Figueiras obtained her PhD degree from the University of Coimbra and is a Researcher and Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Pharmacy at the same institution. She is also a scientific member of REQUIMTE/LAQV. Her research areas are polymeric micelles, cyclodextrins, and mucoadhesive polymers in drug delivery. During her PhD thesis, she acquired experience in drug permeability, cellular viability and cytotoxicity studies, mucoadhesive biomaterials, the therapeutic applications of cyclodextrins, and computational studies in drug design. Now, her objective is to combine know-how development from her PhD thesis and new strategies for successful drug delivery, especially in what concerns the use of block copolymers and micellar systems. She has numerous scientific publications in prestigious journals, several book chapters, and various communications in international conferences.

Talk
On the Development of Novel Cellulose Derivatives for Microplastic Flocculation

Bio
Bruno Medronho graduated in Chemistry from the University of Coimbra in 2004 and completed his PhD in Macromolecular Chemistry (mixed fellowship) in 2009 at the same institution. During his PhD candidature, Bruno received 2 years of scientific training at Lund University (Sweden) at the Division of Physical Chemistry (Prof. Ulf Olsson) and has also been an invited guest researcher at Paderborn University (Prof. Claudia Schmidt, Germany) and at Wellington University (Sir Paul Callaghan and Prof. Petrik Galvosas, New Zealand). In 2012, Bruno became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Algarve (UAlg), where he has since been coordinating a new research line, focusing on biopolymer dissolution, and regeneration and novel bio-based materials. He is currently a Principal Researcher at the University of Algarve and a Visiting Professor at the Surface and Colloid Engineering group at FSCN in Mid Sweden University, Sweden.

Talk
Polysaccharides: Natural Polymers Playing a Role in Inhalable Therapies

Bio
Ana Grenha received her PhD in Pharmacy–Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 2007. She joined the University of Algarve in Portugal for a Professorship in Pharmaceutical Technology in 2007 and received her Habilitation in Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Lisbon in 2022. Since July 2023, she has been Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology. She is the PI of the Drug Delivery Laboratory, part of the Centre for Marine Sciences (CCMAR-UAlg), which is mainly dedicated to respiratory drug delivery, with a particular focus on inhalation. She is also an active collaborator of the iMed from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon. The research group is also keen on exploring the potential of natural materials, namely polysaccharides, fostering new applications that benefit from their intrinsic properties. Additionally, there is strong expertise on encapsulation technologies, which have been applied in distinct sectors ranging from pharmaceutics in the context of drug delivery, to aquaculture in the development of specific feeding strategies, and to food science in the context of supplementation. She has been the PI of several funded projects and has authored ca. 50 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, 6 book chapters, and 2 patents (1 pending) in the field of drug inhalation. She has supervised about 4 PhD and 15 Masters thesis students, all in the field of drug delivery. She was awarded the Investigador Universidade do Algarve 2022 prize and the Robalo Cordeiro Award from the Portuguese Society of Pneumology in 2020 for a scientific project on pulmonary immunization strategies. She is currently the Director of the Integrated Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences at UAlg, has been a member of the Board of Directors of CCMAR-UAlg since 2018, and has been part of the Drug Delivery to the Lungs (DDL) Conference Committee since 2019.