João Andrade started studying Bioengineering at FEUP in 2008. During his studies, he took the branch of Biomedical Engineering and had the opportunity to take one ERASMUS semester in Aalto University, in Helsinki.

In November 2013, he joined a research team at Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Life Sciences (IBILI) in University of Coimbra, enrolled in an European Project related to neurofeedback. His current research interests include brain-computer interfaces based on electroencephalography and biomedical signal processing for assistive technology.

Ana Cláudia Pinto Ribeiro is graduated in Integrated Master in Bioengineering-Molecular Biotechnology in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto in 2013. She developed an academic internship at Laboratory of Ecotoxicology and Ecology of the University of Porto Interdisciplinary Center of and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) between 2011 and 2012. Her master thesis was developed at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of Porto University (IPATIMUP) entitled “Hypoxia-Dependent regulation of Galectin-3 in Mammary Tumors”. She is currently at IPATIMUP in the project "The role of sialylation in modulating galectin-3 functions in the metastatic process of canine mammary tumors".

I started my Master on Bioengineering at FEUP on 2006 and after 2 years I chose the branch of Biological Engineer. During the master I had the amazing chance of integrate a project about Removal mechanisms of Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products with heterotrophic bacteria during my ERASMUS in the University of Santiago de Compostela, Departament of Chemical Engineering. In February of 2011 I had my first experience out of academic world, during my thesis internship, dedicated to implement a quality management system in a department of a healthcare unit.

After concluding the degree, I decided to look for opportunities out of research options. In October of 2011 I started a professional internship on Quality Assurance Department on Avanca Factory from Nestlé Portugal, where are produced brands as Cerelac, Nestum, Chocapic and cereal beverages as Mokambo. At the end I was integrated in the team, where nowadays my main responsibilities are related with food safety management of the different production lines and with the integration of Focused Improvement Team of the factory.

Hélder received is PhD in Biotechnology (2009) from University of Minho (PT) and University of Cambridge (UK). His project was in the field of DNA downstream processing, having published several papers in this field.

Prior to working at Heartgenetics, Hélder worked in 3D microarray technology at Instituto Superior Técnico (PT) and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA).

Helder holds The Lisbon MBA (2013) and he was awarded several prizes, including the Malcolm Lilly Award (2012), attributed by the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences to a promising young scientist working in the field of Bioengineering.

Dr. Carole Leguy is researcher in the field of cardiovascular biomechanics at the Space Physiology Division, DLR-Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Cologne, Germany. She has been co-investigator on ESA/DLR parabolic flight campaigns and led tilt-table and LBNP (lower body negative pressure) studies. Dr. Leguy has a strong expertise in the field of cardiovascular biomechanics and is developing a new closed-loop computational model of the artero-venous system.


Specialties:Biomechanical models of the blood pressure and blood flow (0D, 1D, 3D), Vascular ultrasound measurement, Particle Image Velocimetry set-up, Fluid mechanics, Space biology, Space physiology

Dr. Pavel Gershovich received his PhD from Institute for Biomedical Problems (Moscow, Russia) in 2010, where he worked as a research specialist in the field of space biology and medicine since 2006. He was awarded by National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) and participated in International Postdoctoral Fellowship program 2011-2012, continuing to study space biology as the postdoctoral fellow in Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, USA). In early 2014, he joined the 3B’s research group, University of Minho (Braga, Portugal) as a postdoc.

Head of the Biology and Environmental Monitoring Unit, ISS Utilisation and Astronaut Support Department, Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Operations. European Space Agency ESTEC.

Dr Jason Hatton is the Head of the Biology and Environmental Monitoring Unit in the Directorate of Human Spaceflight at the European Space Agency. Since 2005 he has been responsible for the overall definition and coordination of biology and astrobiology science within the ESA ELIPS programme, which are implemented on a variety of ground and flight research platforms, including the ISS. Furthermore he is responsible for the overall coordination of the ESA ISS Experiments relevant to climate change, which includes a GNSS reflectometry / scatterometry experiment which is currently in a study phase. Dr Hatton also coordinated the joint ESA-NASA airborne observation campaign for the first ESA Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-1) re-entry in 2008.

Prior to joining ESA he worked as a researcher at the VA Medical Center / UCSF in San Francisco from 2001 to 2005 and obtained his Ph.D. from Universite Louis Pasteur Strasbourg in France. Dr Hatton has performed research on immune cell early signal transduction under microgravity conditions, including a series of experiments using the ESA Biorack facility on Shuttle during the 1990’s.

Orlando Frazão graduated in Physical Engineering from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He received his Ph. D. in Physics from University of Porto, Portugal. From 1997 to 1998, he was with the Institute of Telecommunications, Aveiro. Presently, he is an invited Assistant Professor at Dept. Physics and Astronomy of Faculty of Science at University of Porto and he is also a Senior Researcher at Centre for Applied Photonics, INESC TEC. His present research interests included optical fiber sensors and optical communications. He has more than 300 papers in international journals and conferences. He participated as organized committee of several International conferences. He has three scientific awards. He is senior member of the SPIE and OSA.

Fermentum, Lda is an academic spin-off launched in 2011, that dedicates its work in the agro-food and biotechnological field. The company has a highly skilled technical framework, working towards innovative solutions mainly on fermentation technology, currently producing craft beer and selling it by the brand name "Letra - Cerveja Artesanal Minhota". The efforts of the company and growing investment on the Research and Development (R&D) department were recognized by the award of “Best Agro-industrial Start-up of the year 2013” by the Ministry of Agriculture of Portugal.

Francisco Pereira

Francisco Pereira finished his master degree in Biological Engineering at University of Minho (2008). Its scientific career begin as researcher on Center of Biological Engineering collaborating in different national and international projects on bioethanol production field. (2008-2010). Francisco is author of several scientific papers in international journals on his focus scientific area: fermentation technology. He is finishing its PhD program untitled “Bioethanol: Robust production strains for process intensification” (2010-2014). Francisco was also co-founder of an academic spin-off – Fermentum, Lda- and, now, he is brewing engineer at Fermentum launching in the market LETRA craft beers.

PLUX is a medtech company specialized on the creation of innovative biomedical products for industry, clinicians and researchers, by developing advanced biosignals monitoring platforms that integrate wearable body sensors combined with wireless connectivity, algorithms and software applications. Established in 2007, PLUX bridges academia and market, by applying and projecting research grade know-how to problems and practical needs, in several technological areas.

From high know-how on signal conditioning and communication electronics, PLUX technologies enable real-time and robust acquisition of signals with very low noise characteristics, high sensitivity and high immunity to electronic interferences. The current customer base spans across more than 30 countries, including flagship references such as Volkswagen, Intel, Samsung, Boeing, MIT, Stanford University, among many others.

Over the course of its history, PLUX has been an active participant in global R&D networks and policy-making forums in the field of biomedical engineering, through the regular participation in both national and EU-funded research projects. PLUX has also seen its activity widely recognized with distinctions such as the selection as one of the top 20 most innovative European companies at the IVC HealthTech Summit in 2014, the honorable mention at the National Rehabilitation Institute yearly awards for technological innovation in 2013 (Prémio Jaime Filipe), or the Life Sciences award in 2010 at the MIT | Portugal / ISCTE BGI initiative.

Hugo Silva

Hugo Plácido da Silva believes he’s one of the few lucky people that can say he worked very few days in his life... not because of lack of a job (fortunately), but because when you do stuff you love and you're passionate about almost every single day, there's no boundary between what's work and what's just pure fun.

 He completed a BSc in Computer Science, and a MSc in Electrical and Computers Engineering. Since 2004, Hugo is a researcher at the IT - Instituto de Telecomunicações (http://www.it.pt/person_detail_p.asp?id=1293), where he’s currently pursuing his PhD. In 2012 he was a visiting researcher at the Computational and NeuroEgineering Labority (CNEL) from the University of Florida. 


He is also one of the co-founders of PLUX – Wireless Biosignals (http://www.plux.info), established in 2007 as an innovative technology-based company operating in the field of medical devices for healthcare and quality of life, where Hugo is currently a Board Member and Innovation Advisor.



More recently, he has been actively working (i.e. having fun) towards making the world a bit more physiological, through BITalino (http://www.bitalino.com), an open source software and low-cost hardware toolkit, that allows anyone from students to professional app developers, to create cool projects and applications with physiological sensors.



His main interest areas include physiological computing (aka biosignals), system engineering, signal processing, and pattern recognition.

ALGAPLUS - Produção e comercialização de algas e seus derivados Lda. is a private Portuguese company that initiated its activity in 2012. The company works in the B2B and B2C sectors for the food and well-being markets, using the brand “Tok de Mar” for the B2C. Its mission is to produce and trade seaweed and seaweed-derived products in an ecological and social sustainable way through continuous innovation and strict parameters of quality and traceability. The strategies are to associate the cultivation of seaweed with animal aquaculture, taking advantages of the nutrients released in those systems to produce more and better seaweed (IMTA system); to promote the environmental and economical sustainability of the aquaculture industry; to adjust the quantity and quality of seaweed produced to the demands of the markets sought; to keep a strong R&D component in order to optimize processes and develop new products. ALGAPLUS is currently established at a seabass and seabream farm with 14 ha of seawater surface. Current production activities focus on Ulva, Gracilaria, Chondrus and Porphyra species, being able to implement new production lines for the species sought by our customers.

Rui Pereira

Expert in seaweed physiology, strain isolation and life cycle studies, with more than 10 years of experience acquired in Portugal and the United States of America reflected on his extensive publication record. Dr. Pereira has worked with several seaweed species but is main focus has been on Porphyra, Gracilaria and Ulva spp. Over the last years, has focused his research on the application of seaweed as in Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA), both as biofilter (nutrient removal) and as raw material for fuel or ingredient in fish-feed. While in academia, Dr. Rui Pereira collaborated in several national and EU funded projects, like SEAPURA, MARBEF, IBEROMARE and others.

Patients of chronic diseases and their non-professional caregivers have developed a significant number of non-drug medical innovations that have proven valuable in dealing with their diseases. In some cases, patients even saved their own lives! These innovations usually occur behind closed doors and might never be knowledge or used by anyone else. However, if successful solutions and knowledge were shared with other patients with similar need, it could improve the lives of many others. To promote collaboration and foster the diffusion and use of those innovations, we developed Patient Innovation, an international multi-lingual online platform http://www.patient-innovation.com to facilitate sharing of solutions developed by patients or caregivers. Considering the fact that healthcare spending is rising worldwide, helping patients help themselves by sharing innovations developed by patients and caregivers is of great social value, not only promotes knowledge exchange among target stakeholders and it can also save significant resources and reduce costs.

Salomé Azevedo

Salomé Azevedo is a research assistant of the Catolica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics. Her work focuses on how patients and caregivers develop treatments, therapies and medical devices to improve their disease condition. Salomé is working on a project called Patient Innovation and she has been supervised by Professor Pedro Oliveira from Catolica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics and by Professor Helena Canhão from University of Lisbon School of Medicine. Her main focus relies on publishing a book that translates an investigation of solutions developed by Patients of Chronic Diseases, in order to understand the predisposition of patients to innovate. Recently, Salome was in an internship at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA, working in the Engineering and Public Policy, within the project of Patient Innovation. She graduated from Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon with a Master degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2013.

Kinematix develops inteligent devices that extract knowledge from movement and posture to improve human function.

Its products use advanced inertial and pressure sensing technologies, sophisticated firmware and software analytics to measure and report essential information, in real-time, through wireless communication.

Kinematix technologies are targeted for the medical and sports industry (diabetes, osteo-arthritis, stroke, musculoskeletal disorders and orthopedic injuries). Kinematix is headquartered in Portugal and has subsidiaries in the US and in the UK, as well as an office in Netherlands.

Paulo Ferreira dos Santos

Paulo is a serial entrepreneur that has already created 6 companies in different areas, from IT to real estate, since he began working in 1988. He founded Kinematix at the end of his Master studies in Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship in University of Porto, Portugal. He has also a degree in Computer Sciences and Management from University Portucalense, Portugal.

Born at 9th of March in 1966. Currently the president of EABA - European Algae Biomass Association, Necton’s R&D manager, Member of the Board and Shareholder of A4F – Algae for Future, SA. Graduated in Physics, with more than 20 years of experience in Biotechnology.

Moreover Victor ́s basics specialties are expertise and experience in: Solid State Physics (University background), Biotechnology (marine biotechnology, Agrofood, Environment and Health) and Microalgae biotechnologies (applications for Food, Feed, Nutraceuticals, Cosmetics, Aquaculture, Biofuels).

Participated in over forty courses, seminars, congresses and conferences, on topics either scientific (particularly in the areas of Physics, Biology, Environment and Archaeology) or in different areas of management, marketing and business strategy and organization.

Extensive experience in developing and managing several national and international Projects. Executive functions in 20 'scenarios' of entrepreneurial management in different industrial areas, service or innovation, formulation, application and management of 25 R & D projects in multiple national and international contexts.

Expert in management and training of people and teams, negotiation and conflict management, strategic analysis, models of management and organization, transforming ideas into projects, business development.

João Claro is professor at the Faculdade de Engenharia of the Universidade do Porto (FEUP), and holds appointments with INESC TEC, where he is Executive Advisor to the Board in the areas of Knowledge Valorization and Technology Transfer and heads the Innovation and Technology Transfer Unit, and with Porto Business School (PBS), where he heads the Entrepreneurship and Innovation academic area. Since January 2013, João Claro has been the National Director of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, an international partnership in Information and Communication Technology between Portuguese universities, research labs and companies, and Carnegie Mellon University. He was also recently a visiting scholar with the Engineering Systems Division at MIT. In the past decade, he has taught and mentored close to 60 technology commercialization teams from Portuguese universities, research labs and companies, in multiple initiatives with COTEC Portugal, FEUP, INESC TEC, and PBS.

João Claro has a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from FEUP (2008), an MSc in Quantitative Methods in Management from PBS (2002), and an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from FEUP (1993). Prior to returning to the University, he was a software engineer and project manager at Edinfor (1994-1998).