GOVERNANCE
The management of CECA is organized as follow:
JOSÉ MANUEL CORREIA DA COSTA
Scientific Director
Principal Investigator at National Health Institute Dr Ricardo Jorge in Porto. Professor of Protozoology and Multicellular Parasites at Biotechnology School, Catholic University of Porto. Major scientific interests: molecular carcinogenesis of helminth infection-related cancers, and in emergent and zoonotic infectious diseases, design of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools.
ANTÓNIO ROCHA
Executive Committee
Professor of Theriogenology at the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal and European Veterinary Specialist in Animal Reproduction. Major scientific interests: assisted reproduction in farm animals, development of reproductive biotechnologies, reproductive physiology of tropical cattle.
ANA COLETTE MAURÍCIO
Executive Committee
Associated Professor with Habilitation, from the Veterinary Clinics Department of Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar (ICBAS), Universidade do Porto (UP). Scientific Coordinator of a multidisciplinary research group of Experimental Surgery and Regenerative Medicine, working in the development of biomaterials, medical devices and cell-based therapies in collaboration with biotechnology national and international industry but also Veterinary Medicine and Medicine clinical teams.
ANA SANCHES SILVA
Executive Committee
Staff associate researcher at INIAV (Vairão campus). Member of CECA/ICETA since 2011. She obtained a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and received her European Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, with honours. In addition, she was awarded with the prize for best doctorate student. Ana Sanches-Silva has a remarkable track record (over 150 scientific contributions in peer-reviewed journals or book chapters). She has more than 300 communications in national and international conferences. She has participated and coordinated several projects related with food safety and food packaging issues (e.g. VIPACFood, Mobfood, iFILM, Rose4Pack, FOODMIGROSURE). Her research interests are focused on the optimization and validation of analytical methodologies for the evaluation of safety and composition of foods and development of active biopackaging to extend food shelf life.
SANDRA ALVES
Executive Committe
PhD in Molecular Biology in 2002 at Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (PT). From 2002 to 2004 she had a PostDoctoral training period in the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto. In 2004 she became Auxiliary Researcher in the Department of Human Genetics in the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA), Porto and Head of the Lysosomal Storage Diseases Research Group (R&D Unit - Human Genetics Department) in 2009. Since 2013, she is the INSA’s representative in the Portuguese Commission for the Treatment of LSD and since 2019 INSA’s representative in the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP_RD). Her scientific activity has been developed in the Human Genetics field with a major focus on inherited metabolic diseases. She has been conducting studies in order to expand the knowledge on the mutational spectrum of these diseases in Portugal and also to address the impact of the identified mutations. Lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs), mainly mucolipidoses (ML) and mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are her major research focus. Presently, her group aims to develop RNA based therapeutic approaches to address these pathologies. The correction of LSDs causing mutations and the decrease of accumulated substrates are some of examples of aims that drive the development of such approaches. She has trained several students, helping to create several young researchers who developed their MSc/PhD thesis in LSDs. As principal investigator she conducted 8 R&D projects and has the authorship in more than 40 peer review scientific publications and over 80 peer reviewed presentations.