LS4FUTURE 1st General Meeting

On the 8^th of February, iBET joined LS4FUTURE (Associated Laboratory Life Sciences for a Healthy and Sustainable Future) partners for the 1^st general meeting, at Palácio Flor  da Murta - Oeiras.

This one-day event gathered over 225 participants from the 5 research institutions of this associate laboratory – iBET, Gulbenkian Science Institute, ITQB NOVA, IPO Lisboa and Nova Medical School. The program consisted of scientific sessions, and round-table discussions dedicated to each of the 4 thematic lines (TL) addressed by LS4FUTURE:

Also in the program were debate sessions on Career Development (chaired by Ana Gomes), Internationalisation (chaired by Sara Marques), and Innovation (chaired by Lina Paez) – the three focus areas of LS4FUTURE Coordination Office – which aimed to connect researchers across all institutions.

The meeting was opened by Inês Cardoso Pereira (LS4FUTURE Coordinator), and Pedro Patacho, responsible for the Education sector in the municipality of Oeiras, with the additional presence of the Oeiras Valley Coordinator Elisabete Brigadeiro.

iBET main contribution to LS4FUTURE scientific program lies within TL3 and TL4. Our CEO, Paula Alves, introduced the topics covered by TL3: Design and development of biopharmaceutics and drugs; Cell technology for pre-clinical research; Engineering processes for biopharmaceuticals, which she coordinates together with Tiago Bandeiras (Head of Merck Satellite Lab – Structural Biology for Drug Discovery at iBET).

The TL3 session included talks by iBET’s researchers Catarina Brito (Head of the Advanced Cell Models lab), Inês Isidro (Principal Scientist at the Biosystems and Data Science group) and Pedro Matias (Head of Molecular Biophysics lab – ITQB NOVA & iBET).

TL4 is co-coordinated by Maria Rosário Bronze (Senior Scientific Advisor of iBET’s Food & Health Division), and the scientific session had the participation of Teresa Serra (Head of Natural Bioactives and Nutraceuticals Area at iBET) as speaker. TL4 - Biotechnology for a sustainable world, focuses on topics such as: Plant sciences for food security; Food safety, Synthetic biology, Renewable resources of energy and environment, and Biomaterials and green chemistry.

iBET additionally contributed to the TL3 round-table discussion session, moderated by Ana Amaral, Tiago Bandeiras and Pedro Matias.

The LS4FUTURE is the largest national associated laboratory dedicated to address health and sustainability challenges in a transdisciplinary way, providing effective solutions by combining public and private resources. The official kick-off meeting was held in the Summer of 2022.

The coordination office is currently planning a PI retreat on March 22^nd and 23^rd, aiming to strengthen interactions and partnerships within the LS4FUTURE community.

For additional information about LS4FUTURE please visit the website or contact the Coordination Office (ls4future@ls4future.pt).