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.

i3S Travel Information »

Organization

Organizing Committee

Maria José Oliveira
i3S – Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, INEB – Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto
Susana Santos
i3S – Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, INEB – Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto
Catarina Almeida
iBiMED – Institute for Biomedicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Aveiro

Scientific Committee

Luís Graça
GIMM-Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, Lisbon
Manuel Sobrinho Simões
i3S- institute for Research and Innovation in Health, University of Porto
Margarida Saraiva
i3S- institute for Research and Innovation in Health, University of Porto
Mário A. Barbosa
i3S- institute for Research and Innovation in Health, University of Porto
Nuno Alves
i3S- institute for Research and Innovation in Health, University of Porto
Paula Videira
UCIBIO, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Program

Program

08h45 | Registration

09h00 - 09h15 | Welcome

09h15 - 10h00 | Invited Talk

Nanobody-mediated targeting of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment
Jo van Ginderachter, Cellular and Molecular Immunology Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) and Vlaams Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Belgium

(Chairs: Maria José Oliveira (i3S) & Mário Barbosa (i3S))

10h00 - 10h30 | 3 Selected Oral Presentations

Rafaela Abrantes: Novel CAR T formulations targeting tumor-associated glycoepitopes: A new strategy for solid
Daniel Teixeira Lopes: Antibody blockade of the PSGL-1 glycoprotein impairs non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma progression and enhances T-cell responses
Ana Canha-Borges: Macrophage-driven mechanisms of radiotherapy resistance in triple-negative breast cancer

10h30 - 11h00 | Speed Talks

Beatriz M. Sousa | P6: Investigating Macrophage-Driven Radioresistance in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Spheroids
Telma Costa | P10: ETV6: JAK2 fusion promotes central nervous system invasion in a pre-clinical model of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Catarina A. Rodrigues | P18: PD-L1 Dynamics in Cancer Cells and Extracellular Vesicles: Implications for Immunotherapy Monitoring and Circulating Biomarkers Discovery
Rui Marques | P19: CCL18, macrophages and fibroblasts: shaping immunosuppression and invasion in colorectal tumors

11h00 - 11h30 | Coffee break & Poster Session

11h30 - 12h15 | Invited Talk

Cellular reprogramming for cancer therapy
Filipe Pereira, Cell Reprogramming in Hematopoiesis and Immunity, Lund University Cancer Center, Sweden

(Chairs: Susana Gomes Santos (i3S) & Nuno Rodrigues dos Santos (i3S))

12h15 - 12h45 | 3 Selected Oral Presentations

Carolina Dias: Reprogramming of the PDAC microenvironment through Rab27a loss enhances sensitivity to immunotherapy
Ana Luisa Machado: Colorectal Tumors Orchestrate Systemic Hematopoietic Reprogramming
Joana Gomes: The role of sialic acid in therapy response and immunomodulation in colorectal cancer

12h45 - 13h05 | Speed Talks

Inês Lebre-Vieira | P5: The Cost of Survival: Targeting Metabolic Adaptation in Radioresistant Rectal Cancer
Marina C. Baessa | P9: Self-antigen presentation drives T-cell leukemia development in a TCR transgenic mouse model
Marta Lopes | P11: Transferrin in combination with induction chemotherapy improves outcomes in mouse models of acute myeloid leukemia

13h05 - 13h15 | Sponsor Talk: Enzifarma

13h15 - 14h30 | Lunch & Poster Session

14h30 - 15h15 | Invited Talk

Immune modulatory interventions in Aging and Tissue Repair
Joana Neves, GIMM, Portugal

(Chairs: Catarina Almeida (iBiMED) & Margarida Saraiva (i3S))

15h15 - 15h45 | 3 Selected Oral Presentations

Ivette Pacheco-Leyva: Molecular mechanisms directing T cell acute leukemia migration
Luís Figueiredo Mendes: Impact of nutrient availability and ER-stress in plasmacytoid dendritic cells: insights into fibrosis in Systemic Sclerosis
Catarina Esquível: CDH3/P-cadherin couples hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal plasticity to immune escape in metastatic breast cancer

15h45 - 16h15 | Speed Talks

Juliana Cunha | P12: Uncovering the long-term immune signature of T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma
Ana Catarina Nunes | P8: Combined analysis of chromatin accessibility, promoter interactions and whole genome sequencing disclosed the missing heritability in gastric cancer
Sofia T. Quintas | P1: Harnessing Dendritic Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles for Immunotherapy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Bárbara Ferreira | P17: Assessing the Contribution of TNF-α to Osteoclast Differentiation in Osteosarcoma: An In Vitro Study

16h15 - 16h45 | Coffee break & Poster Session

16h45 - 17h45 | Round Table - Immunotherapies: Current Practices & Future Challenges

[Moderator: Delfim Duarte (i3S/IPO Porto) | Participantes: Joana Neves (GIMM), Filipe
Pereira (LUCC), Margareta Correia (IPO Porto), Sara Pinto Coelho (IPO Porto)]

17h45 - 18h00 | Closing Session and Awards

Speakers

Filipe Pereira, Cell Reprogramming in Hematopoiesis and Immunity, Lund University Cancer Center, Sweden

Filipe Pereira is a Professor of Molecular Medicine at Lund University in Sweden, where his research explores the intersection of cellular reprogramming and immunology. His laboratory develops reprogramming-based immunotherapies with the potential to transform the treatment of cancer and immune-mediated diseases. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Cellular Reprogramming and is a Fellow of the Swedish Wallenberg Program in Molecular Medicine.

Over the past two decades, he has built an internationally recognized research program on immune cellular reprogramming and hematopoietic specification. He earned his Ph.D. at Imperial College London, where he investigated mechanisms of reprogramming toward pluripotency using cell fusion and heterokaryon models. During postdoctoral training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, he was among the first to apply cellular reprogramming principles to hematopoiesis.

Since establishing independent research groups at the University of Coimbra in 2015 and at Lund University in 2017, his team has uncovered mechanisms governing hematopoietic reprogramming and definitive hematopoiesis specification. The group also pioneered reprogramming fibroblasts and cancer cells into dendritic cells, introducing a framework that merges cellular reprogramming with cancer immunotherapy.

Beyond academia, he is a co-founder of Asgard Therapeutics, a biotechnology company translating in vivo dendritic-cell reprogramming into next-generation cancer therapies.

For his scientific and innovation contributions, he has received five fellowships and thirty-four awards, including three ERC grants, a Swedish Research Council Consolidator Grant, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Distinguished Innovator Grant, and honors such as the Swedish Fernström Prize, Pfizer-Portugal award and the Imperial College Emerging Alumni Leader Award.

Jo van Ginderachter, Cellular and Molecular Immunology Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) and Vlaams Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Belgium

Jo Van Ginderachter is Heading the Cellular and Molecular Immunology Lab and tenured Full Professor at VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussels) and Group Leader of the excellence-based research institute VIB (Vlaams Institute of Biotechnology). He has graduated as bio-engineer at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in 1995 and obtained his PhD in the lab of Cellular and Molecular Immunology at the same university in 2002, studying the impact of the innate and adaptive immune system on the growth and metastasis of mouse lymphoma models. He continued his postdoctoral training in Brussels funded by a competitive Prospective Research for Brussels grant. He has a long-standing expertise in macrophage biology, tumour immunology and applications of nanobodies.

Jo Van Ginderachter became staff scientist in the Cellular and Molecular Immunology Lab in 2006, assistant professor at VUB in 2010, Group Leader of VIB in 2012 and Tenure Track Professor of Immunology at VUB in 2014. He is author of 161 scientific publications, with over 20.800 citations (h-index = 57), and 4 book chapters and is inventor on 12 patents. He is also Board member of the Belgian Immunological Society, the Belgian Association for Cancer Research and Flanders Vaccine.

The mission of his lab is to characterize the heterogeneity and function of immunoregulatory cells (monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, Treg) in the tumor microenvironment and inflamed organs and use these cells as an in vivo sensor to track (anti-tumor) immunity and as a target for therapeutic intervention. In this respect, his lab employs cutting-edge single-cell and mouse genetics technologies to uncover the intricacies of the (tumor) immune microenvironment and pioneered the use of Nanobodies as exquisite tools to target immune cells.

Joana Neves, GIMM Lisbon, Portugal

Joana Neves is a Group Leader at GIMM Lisbon, co-directing the Aging and Tissue Repair joint lab. She is interested in understanding how immune modulation can be harnessed to improve stem cell function and regenerative therapies in aging. Joana Neves received her PhD in 2009 from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. During her postdoctoral work, at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, she discovered the immune modulatory and anti-geronic properties of MANF and its use for retinal regenerative therapies. Joana Neves is now dedicated to the study of regenerative biology in aging, aiming to design interventions to improve regenerative therapies in older humans. She received several awards, including the 2019 Sartorius and Science Prize in Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy.