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Long before nanotechnology was a term, scientists such as Richard Feynman were describing processes in which scientists would be able to manipulate and control individual atoms and molecules. Nowadays, this is no longer a dream... Nanotechnology has been growing as a transversal and very active field of research.
Thus, this panel aims to present recently developed nano- particles/sensors/applications/instruments for a vast panoply of areas, from medical diagnosis and therapeutics to pharmaceutical and environmental technologies. Different areas, with one thing in common: thought at the x10^-9 scale.


Paulo Freitas

International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Portugal
Prof. Paulo Freitas is the Deputy Director General of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory and will talk about his work on magnetic microelectrodes (magnetrodes) to measure the neuronal magnetic and electrical signals in the visual cortex of cats. Paulo Freitas did his undergraduate studies at Univ. of Porto, “Licenciatura” in Physics, in 1981, and he got his PhD, also in Physics, from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh in 1986, followed by a postdoctoral appointment at IBM T.J.Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights.
Currently, Paulo Freitas has over 11 000 citations and an h-index of 52, and his research interests are spintronics and applications in sensing, memory, biological and biomedical applications. In the biomedical area, applications cover DNA and protein biochips, integrated cell cytometers and neuroelectronics.

Inês Cardoso Pereira

ITQB, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Prof Inês Cardoso Pereira did her BSc in Applied Chemistry at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and holds a PhD from the University of Oxford, with a work on the biosynthesis of cephalosporins. She returned to Portugal for a Post-Doc at ITQB NOVA, studying metalloproteins and she is currently a Principal Investigator at this institute, where she leads a research group dedicated to studying anaerobic microorganisms, their exploitation for biotechnological applications.
Her group is carrying out an innovative research project based on harnessing the potential of (bio)nanotechnology. Its goal is simple, yet of paramount importance in today’s world, where environmental contamination is becoming an increasingly worrying subject: to reduce the water contamination by pharmaceutical products, which would otherwise lead to an increase in antibiotic resistance. To achieve such an objective, biogenic metallic nanoparticles are employed.

Juan Gallo

International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory - INL, Portugal
Juan Gallo received a degree in Biochemistry (2004) from the University of Salamanca, and a degree in Chemistry from the University of Valladolid (2005). He obtained his PhD in Chemistry (2011) from the University of the Basque Country working at the laboratory of glyconanotechnology (Prof. Penades) at CICbiomaGUNE on the preparation of magnetic nanoparticles and quantum dots for biomedical applications.
Since 2015, Gallo is a CoFound Research Fellow at the INL - International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Braga. Here, within the Advanced (magnetic) Theranostic Nanostructures (AmTheNa) Lab he works on theranostic (therapy plus diagnosis) applications of nanoparticles. He will talk about solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs), an interesting members of magnetic hybrid nanocomposites, due to their biocompatibility, low toxicity and ability to influence the delivery of pharmacological agents.