14th International Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Stem Cells and Cell Therapy (SPCE-TC)
20 - 21 November de 2025 | i3S, Porto, Portugal
On behalf of the Organising Committee, it is our great pleasure to welcome you to the biennial meeting of the Portuguese Society for Stem Cells and Cellular Therapy (SPCE-TC), held in the historic and vibrant city of Porto.
The 2025 edition of this meeting holds particular significance as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Society — two decades marked by scientific excellence, pioneering research, and a strong commitment to advancing the field of stem cells, cell therapies and regenerative medicine in Portugal and beyond.
Over the past twenty years, the SPCE-TC community has shared knowledge, fostered interdisciplinary collaboration, and promoted innovation in stem cell research and cellular therapies. This congress continues that tradition by bringing together leading scientists, clinicians, and professionals to share the latest breakthroughs, discuss emerging challenges, and envision the future of the field.
The scientific programme has been thoughtfully curated to reflect both the diversity and depth of our discipline, featuring keynote lectures by distinguished international and national experts. We expect that this meeting creates an opportunity for discussion, brainstorming and creation of awareness for the field of stem cells and cell therapies among young researchers.
We are equally delighted to host this commemorative event in Porto, a city renowned not only for its beauty and cultural heritage but also for its growing role as a hub of biomedical research and innovation.
We thank you for your presence and participation in this important milestone. May this congress serve not only to honour our past but also to inspire the next chapter of progress in stem cell and cellular therapy research.
Welcome to Porto. Welcome to the 20th Anniversary Congress of SPCE-TC.
The Organising Committee,
Diana S Nascimento
Raquel Gonçalves
Venue
The meeting will be held at i3S – Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde.
Rua Alfredo Allen, 208; 4200-135 Porto, Portugal
Tel: +351 226 074 900 | Site: http://www.i3s.up.pt/ | E-mail: events@i3s.up.pt
GPS coordinates: 41º 10’ 30.008’’ N, 8º 36’ 12.488’’ W.
Organization
Diana S Nascimento
Raquel Gonçalves
Program
Day 1 | 20th November
09:00 - 09:30 Welcome
09:30 - 10:15 Engineered biomaterials for regeneration and mechanobiology
Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez, University of Glasgow and Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC)
10:15 - 11:00 Session 1: Rejuvenation and Regeneration: Biomaterial Strategies Across Systems
10:15 - 10:30 Senescence-Targeting Nanotherapeutics for Blood-Brain Barrier Rejuvenation
Vitor Francisco, CNC-UC
10:30 - 10:45 Tailoring Fetal-inspired Matrices for Intervertebral Disc Regeneration
Catarina Milheiro, ICBAS/i3S
10:45 - 11:00 Cell secretomes used as sole building blocks enable the fabrication of stable hydrogels for biomedical applications
Beatriz G. Neves, University of Aveiro
11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 - 12:15 Advances in Regenerative Biotechnology: Stem Cells, Biomaterials, and Drug Delivery Systems
Sílvia Dias Prado, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud (Universidade da Coruña) and Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de A Coruña (INIBIC)
12:15 - 13:00 Session 2: Next-Generation Cell-Free and Cellular Approaches in MSC-Based Therapies
12:15 - 12:30 The Therapeutic Signature of iMSC Secretome: Multi-Pathway Modulation in Parkinson’s Disease
Filipa Ferreira Antunes, ICVS
12:30 - 12:45 Bioengineered Small Extracellular Vesicles from 3D MSC Cultures Loaded with A151 Oligodeoxynucleotide Exhibit Enhanced Immunomodulatory Activity in Inflammatory Conditions
Sérgio P. Camões, imed.ULisboa, FFUL
12:45 - 13:00 Comparative transcriptomic profiling of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells in severe acquired idiopathic aplastic anemia (SAA) versus healthy controls
Isabel Martins, Universidade de Lisboa
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 14:45 Tissue Regulatory T Cells
Markus Feuerer, Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy
14:45 - 16:15 Poster session and coffee break
16:15 - 17:00 SPCE career award
17:00 - 17:30 Crioestaminal award
18:00 - 19:00 SPCE General Assembly
20:00 SPCE-TC Dinner
Day 2 | 21st November
09:30 - 10:00 Innovation in development and targeted delivery of regenerative medicines using pluripotent stem cells as starting material
Ricardo Baptista, SmartCella and Procella
10:00 - 10:45 Session 3: Stem Cells in Disease Modeling and Pathology
10:00 - 10:15 Targeting Cardiac Senescence in Progeria Through Lonafarnib-Induced Autophagy
Patrícia R. Pitrez, University of Coimbra
10:15 - 10:30 Exploring cell-based tools to target Mφ-induce inflammation after cardiac I/R injury
Bernardo Abecasis, iBET
10:30 - 10:45 Intestinal stem cell marker MEX3A acts as a PPAR? direct regulator with functional impact in colorectal carcinogenesis
Rita Silva, i3S
10:45 - 12:00 Poster session and coffee break
12:00 - 13:00 Synthetic Ex Utero Embryogenesis: from Naive Pluripotent Cells to Complete Developmental Models
Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna, Weizmann Institute of Science
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 14:30 Scaling Innovation in Cell & Gene Therapy Manufacturing
Elsa Abranches, ViSync Technologies and European Committee of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT)
14:30 - 15:15 Session 4: From Genome Editing to Stem Cells Bioprocessing
14:30 - 14:45 Impact of systemic lipids and obesogenic memory in mouse iPSCs and cardiac differentiation
Sandrina Nóbrega Pereira, University of Aveiro
14:45 - 15:00 CRISPR-Engineered iPSCs for Modeling and Therapeutic Development in Costello Syndrome
Joana Jeremias, IST-ID
15:00 - 15:15 Accelerating the Manufacture of γδ T Cells for Allogeneic Cancer Therapies: Integrated Cell Differentiation and Expansion in Bioreactors
Miguel Fuzeta, iBET
15:15 – 16:00 Round Table: Future of stem cells in Portugal?
16:00 Awards / 20 years of SPCE
Liliana Bernardino, President of the Portuguese Society for Stem Cells and Cell Therapy (SPCE-TC)
16:20 Closing Ceremony
16:30 Coffee break and SPCE-TC Porto de Honra
Speakers
Elsa Abranches
Elsa Abranches holds a degree in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Stem Cell Biotechnology, from the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal.
Elsa has over 20 years of experience in stem cell biotechnology, standardization and Advanced Therapies regulation areas, ranging from applied research through to manufacturing and regulatory compliance of stem cell-derived products. She has held roles at AstraZeneca and at the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). She has also contributed to numerous collaborative projects with academia, industry and regulatory bodies and has served on several national and international committees supporting regulatory compliance in Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs).
Currently, Elsa is Chief Scientific Officer at ViSync Technologies and the regional treasurer of the European Committee of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT).
Jacob Hanna
Dr. Hanna is a Professor of a Stem Cell Biology and Synthetic Embryology in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. His research focuses on embryonic stem cell biology, ex utero embryogenesis, synthetic embryo and developmental models, with the goal of advancing treatments for infertility and degenerative diseases. Hanna is known for leading the creation of the first authentic integrated and complete mouse and human stem-cell-based embryo models resembling embryos up to fourteen days after fertilization and beyond. He was an executive board member of the Israel Society for Stem Cell Research until 2018. He completed his postdoctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and is the 2025 recipient of the HFSP Nakasone award for his work on embryo models from pluripotent stem cells.
Manuel Salmeron
Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Glasgow and ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC). He did a PhD in Valencia and postdoctoral training in Prague (Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry) and KU Leuven. He was a visiting professor in Georgia Tech (2010) and Kyushu University (2018, 2020). He was Full Professor of Applied Physics in Valencia before relocating to Glasgow in 2013. Manuel develops advanced biomaterials for cell engineering and mechanobiology. His research includes materials that trigger the organisation of extracellular matrix proteins (Science Advances 2016); the use viscosity to control cell behaviour (PNAS 2018 & Nature Communications 2024) and interfaces that trigger the mechanical activation of growth factors (Advanced Materials 2024). Manuel holds an ERC Advanced Grant to develop the next generation of viscoelastic materials in stem cell engineering. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy for Arts and Sciences.
Markus Feuerer
Prof. Markus Feuerer studied medicine at the Universities of Mainz and Heidelberg. He carried out his dissertation work in Heidelberg at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). He received postdoctoral training at the German Rheumatism Research Centre (DRFZ) and Charité University Clinic, Berlin. From 2004–2009 he moved to Boston (USA) for a second postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Diane Mathis and Dr. Christophe Benoist at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School. After his postdoctoral training, Prof. Feuerer became Head of the independent Helmholtz Young Investigator Group for Immune Tolerance at the DKFZ in Heidelberg (2009–2017). In 2017, he was appointed Professor of Immunology and head Chair for Immunology at the University of Regensburg. Prof. Feuerer is currently the head of the Division of Immunology at the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT) and Deputy Scientific Director of the LIT, as well as a member of the LIT Management Board.
Ricardo Baptista
Ricardo has extensive global experience in cell therapy, with a focus on developing bioprocessing and analytical platforms for the scalable and cost-effective manufacture of allogeneic cell therapies in compliance with GMP standards. His strategic focus is on building agile teams to de-risk the product lifecycle—from early scientific discovery to commercial manufacturing—while keeping the end product in mind from the outset. He brings in-depth expertise in CMC, Quality Assurance, and Regulatory Affairs, and serves on international committees and advisory boards that promote best practices for the standardization of PSC therapy development and other novel therapeutic modalities. Ricardo holds a PhD in biotechnology and biochemical engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal) and completed post-doctoral research at Peter Zandstra Bioengineering Lab (Canada). He is currently the Chief Technology Officer at SmartCella and the Head of Procella.
Silvia Prado
Silvia María Díaz Prado holds a PhD in Biology (2004) from the University of A Coruña. She is Professor of Anatomy at the same university, coordinator of the Master’s Degree in Health Care and Research, and leads the Cellular Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Group at INIBIC. Her research focuses on tissue engineering, novel biomaterials, stem cells (including iPSCs), nanoparticle drug delivery, and 3D bioprinting. She has authored 68 scientific articles (H-index [Scopus]: 24), 32 book chapters, 5 books/monographs, and 215 conference presentations. She has participated in 33 research projects, supervised 44 Master’s theses and 8 doctoral theses, and currently supervises 9 more. She has received 7 research awards.
Abstract Submission
The call for abstracts will be open until the 28th of September (notification of acceptance until the 3rd of October 2025). The abstract will be evaluated and selected for oral communication or poster communication.
Participants with submitted abstracts should register by the 8th of October.
Abstracts should be structured according to the following template:
Registration
Registration fee includes coffee breaks, lunches and dinner (November 20th). Accommodation is not included in the registration fee.
FEES:
| Early bird until October 10th | Payment deadline: October 10th | Late registration until October 21st | Payment deadline: October 21st | |
| Students (SPCE-TC member)* | 150 € | 200 € |
| Students (Non SPCE-TC member)* | 250 € | 350 € |
| Other (SPCE-TC member) | 300 € | 400 € |
| Other (Non SPCE-TC member) | 400 € | 500 € |
* Students should enclose a letter confirming their status, signed by their supervisors, or other documents that prove their status.
Sponsors
GOLD SPONSORS:
SILVER SPONSORS:
BRONZE SPONSORS:
More information:
Events Management Unit | Rua Alfredo Allen 208 | 4200-135 Porto, Portugal
Email: events@i3s.up.pt | Tel: +351 226 074 900