Portugal

INEB – Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica

www.ineb.up.pt

INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica is a private non-profit association of the University of Porto with the statute of public interest. The aim of INEB is to provide an interface between academia and the entrepreneurial and health sectors in the areas of Biomedical Engineering. The institute was founded in June 1989 by six institutions, including the University of Porto.

About 100 persons work at INEB, 35 of whom hold a doctoral degree and 38 are post-graduate students. INEB is an institution with young people (the percentage of researchers with less than 40 years is 78%) and from the female sex (female/male ratio at INEB is 2.06).

INEB has collaborations with many of the most relevant scientists and groups in Australia, China, Europe, Japan, South America, Canada and the US, resulting in exchanges and co-supervision of post-graduate students and joint publications in international journals.

INEB has an institutional link with the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology (IBMC), also a private non-profit institution of the University of Porto. In 2000 the IBMC/INEB was granted the statute of Associate Laboratory by the Ministry for Science and Technology. In Portugal this statute has been granted to a limited number of institutions among those that have been rated Excellent by international evaluation panels. The collaboration between INEB and IBMC has created a strong interface between biomedical engineering and life sciences.

More recently, institutional links were established between IBMC, INEB and IPATIMUP, thus creating new opportunities for more than 500 researchers (>220 holding a doctoral degree).

INEB is strongly involved in the Doctoral and Masters Programmes in Biomedical Engineering of the University of Porto, both created in 1996. Research training involves INEB members as well as staff from schools of the University of Porto and other institutions, including from European countries and USA.

Scientific Coordinator of INEB: Mário A. Barbosa (mbarbosa@ineb.up.pt)

Biomaterials Division

Mission

The aim of the Biomaterials Division of INEB is to develop biomaterials and implantable devices that may contribute to the restoration of tissue architecture and function, especially of bone, to alleviate the consequences of disease, ageing and trauma. Three groups constitute the Biomaterials Division of INEB (for more information visit www.ineb.up.pt). Research is carried out in two labs: Biointerfaces, and Bioceramics and Glasses.

NEWTherapies Group

Group Coordinator: Mário Barbosa (mbarbosa@ineb.up.pt)

The main aim of the NEWTherapies Group is to develop Biomaterials and Nanomedicine integrated approaches towards tissue repair and regeneration, focusing mostly on osteoarticular and neurosciences applications. Cell-based therapies for repairing cardiac injuries and novel strategies for prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of cancer are also being explored.

To fulfill these objectives the group is committed to elicit the required biological responses through:

Understanding and guiding matrix-cell and cell-cell interactions;
Designing surfaces and matrices at the molecular level;
Promoting stem cell expansion and targeted differentiation.

Its activity is structured around 6 research teams:

BioEngineered Surfaces
Biomaterials for Neurosciences
Biomimetic microenvironments
Bone Tissue Engineering
Neuro-osteogenesis
Stem Cell Biology

Biocomposites Group

Group Coordinator: Fernando Jorge Monteiro (fjmont@ineb.up.pt)

The main objectives of the group are:

To carry out Research and Development in composite biomaterials and thin coatings based on bioactive ceramics and polymers, including nanostructured materials, for bone regeneration and other medical applications.
To apply such materials as drugs and other molecules delivery systems, for bone regeneration, as well as in tissue engineering scaffolds, and also to use these materials to produce thin coatings aiming at improving integration and bonding to neighbouring tissues.

To study production techniques, forms of particles aggregation and association of materials, involving mechanical, structural, chemical, surface or interface properties, characterisation, contact with cells under in vitro conditions, in vivo experimentation and clinical trials.

Geoepidemiology Group

Group Coordinator: Fátima Pina (fpina@ineb.up.pt)

The main objective of the group is to develop Spatial Epidemiology studies to better understand the geographic distribution of diseases.

To fulfill these objectives the group uses the technologies of Geographical Information Systems and Spatial Statistical tools to:

Map, describe and analyze the geographical distribution of diseases and its relations with socioeconomic and environmental factors.
Estimate the magnitude of health problems, identify areas in need and monitor changes in disease incidence and prevalence overtime.
Test hypotheses about the etiology of diseases.

Selected recent publications

(For a complete list of the publications visit www.ineb.up.pt.)

Barbosa JN, Amaral IF, Águas AP, Barbosa MA. Evaluation of the effect of the degree of acetylation on the inflammatory response to 3D porous chitosan scaffolds. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part A 93(1):20-8, 2010.

Bidarra SJ, Barrias CC, Barbosa MA, Soares R, Granja PL. Immobilization of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells within RGD-Grafted Alginate Microspheres and Assessment of Their Angiogenic Potential. Biomacromolecules 11 (8): 1956-1964, 2010.

Cachaco AS, Carvalho T, Santos AC, Igreja C, Fragoso R, Osorio, Ferreira M, Serpa J, Correia S, Pinto-do-O P, Dias S . TNF-alpha Regulates the Effects of Irradiation in the Mouse Bone Marrow Microenvironment. PLOS ONE 5 (2): Article Number: e8980, 2010.

Freitas SC, Barbosa MA, Martins MCL. The effect of immobilization of thrombin inhibitors onto self-assembled monolayers on the adsorption and activity of thrombin. Biomaterials 31(14):3772-80, 2010.

Gonçalves R, Martins MCL, Oliveira MJ, Almeida-Porada G, Barbosa MA. Bioactivity of immobilized EGF on self-assembled monolayers: optimization of the immobilization process. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part A 94 (2):576-85, 2010.

Jorge-Herrero E, Fonseca C, Barge AP, Turnay J, Olmo N, Fernández P, Lizarbe MA, García Páez JM. Biocompatibility and calcification of bovine pericardium employed for the construction of cardiac bioprostheses treated with different chemical crosslink methods. Artif Organs 34(5):E168-76, 2010.

Nunes AF, Liz MA, Franquinho F, Teixeira L, Sousa V, Chenu C, Lamghari M, Sousa MM, Neuropeptide Y expression and function during osteoblast differentiation - insights from transthyretin knockout mice. FEBS JOURNAL 277 (1) 263-275, 2010.

Oliveira H, Fernandez R, Pires LR, Martins MCL, Simões S, Barbosa MA, Pêgo AP. Targeted gene delivery into peripheral sensorial neurons mediated by self-assembled vectors composed of poly(ethylene imine) and tetanus toxin fragment c. J Controlled Release 143(3):350-8, 2010.

Oliveira, SM, Ringshia RA, Legeros RZ, Clark E, Yost MJ, Terracio L, Teixeira CC. An improved collagen scaffold for skeletal regeneration. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part A 94(2):371-9, 2010.

Santos JL, Pandita D, Rodrigues J, Pêgo AP, Granja PL, Balian G, Tomas H. Receptor-mediated gene delivery using PAMAM dendrimers conjugated with peptides recognized by mesenchymal stem cells. Molecular Pharmaceutics 7 (3): 763-774, 2010.

Teixeira S, Fernandes H, Leusink A, Van Blitterswijk C, Ferraz MP, Monteiro FJ, De Boer J. In vivo evaluation of highly macroporous ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part A 93(2):567-75, 2010.