SIMICA'S NEWS
5th mentorship call
July 2022
The call for the 5th mentorship programme targeted at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers is now open from 5 July until 15 July 2022. If you have any questions please contact anamguerreiro@medicina.ulisboa.pt
Mentoring
July 2022
Another mentoring class organized by SIMICA. It was a pleasure to participate in this mentoring program for MD students from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.
We did again
July 2022
Another reporting meeting with Gonçalo Bernardes (UCAM), Daniel-Adriano Silva (Neoleukin and Monod Bio), Jilliane Bruffey and Derrick Hicks (University of Washington, David Baker Lab) to discuss the ongoing projects about protein-drug conjugates for cancer therapy.
Tetrahedron Symposium
June 2022
Great to see the 22nd Tetrahedron Symposium being held in-person in the beautiful sunny Lisbon. Lots of great chemistry around. Gonçalo Bernardes presented his most recent work.
SIMICA Knowledge Transfer Zone held on June 28
June 2022
Gonçalo Bernardes from Ucam, Pablo Lara from LUMC and João Seixas from TargTex presented at the SIMICA Knowledge Transfer Zone. The participants had the opportunity to learn about methods for modification of proteins and extracellular vesicles and how to apply these constructs for biological applications that impact academia and industry.
Great news for Gonçalo Bernardes
June 2022
Our partner from @ChemCambridge was promoted to Full Professor at the University of Cambridge, Chemistry Department. Well deserved recognition of Gonçalo´s great work. Big congratulations.Second annual project meeting
June 2022
All partners met on June 6 to discuss the results of the project obtained so far and to plan the upcoming period.
SIMICA summer school is approaching
June 2022
Stay tuned for details.
Mentoring young MD students
May 2022
Marta Bento, a MD/PhD student at the host lab at IMM participated in the mentoring program for MD students organized by the "Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa" in which SIMICA is also involved. She presented her translational research about hematologic malignancies. The little boys also loved it.
Group meeting to plan upcoming events
May 2022
Intense days preparing next events of SIMICA. Great meeting with Giuseppina Roscigno, Alessandra Affinito, Silvia Sobol and Antonio Annunziata from PERC.
SIMICA consortium proudly announces
April 2022
The SIMICA Summer School about Chemical Biology and Physiology of Protein Conjugates will take place at Praia Verde, Algarve on 18th - 20th October. Save the date.
Great discussions about innovative protein conjugates
April 2022
Happy to host Daniel-Adriano Silva, founder of Neoleukin and currently CEO of Monod Bio. Daniel is a world-renowned expert in de novo protein design and SIMICA is helping with the modification of these designed proteins.
Results of the 3rd Scholarship to attend international meetings
March 2022
The winners of the 3rd scholarship are:
Sara Pinto
Name of training course / scientific meeting: FENS FORUM 2022
Date of meeting: 9-13 July 2022
Location of meeting: Paris, France
Carlos Almeida
Name of training course / scientific meeting: Cancer Immunotherapy: Decoding the Cancer Immunity Interactome.
Date of meeting: 20-24 March 2022
Location of meeting: Fairmont Chateau Whistler, Whistler BC, Canada
Carlos Ramos
Name of training course / scientific meeting: EMBO Workshop: RNA localization and local translation
Date of meeting: 17-21 July 2022
Location of meeting: Barcelona, Spain
Marta Marques
Name of training course / scientific meeting: 22nd Tetrahedron Symposium
Catalysis for a Sustainable World
Date of meeting: 28 June – 1 July 2022
Location of meeting: Lisbon
Cláudia Afonso
Name of training course / scientific meeting: 14th European Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry Workshop & 3rd EFTMS School
Date of meeting: 11-14 July 2022
Location of meeting: Lisbon
3rd Scholarship to attend international meetings
March 2022
For iMMers, the next cut-off date for the SIMICA Scholarship for the attendance of international conferences is the 17th March. Don’t miss the chance to attend an international scientific conference in 2022 and get the registration fee, traveling, accommodation and daily subsistence expenses covered.
For further details, please contact anamguerreiro@medicina.ulisboa.pt.
Protecting our inventions
March 2022
It´s a privilege to count with the support of Pedro Silva from the Tech Transfer Office of IMM to file a patent for our discoveries. One more step towards the commercialization of the bioconjugating linkers we are developing in the lab. We will keep you updated.
Attracting students to the field
February 2022
Bruno Oliveira participated in an information session about "methods for protein modification and their biological applications" for the prospective students of the Lisbon BioMed program. We hope you found the topic interesting and join the lab for your PhD studies.
MD Mentoring program
February 2022
It was a pleasure to meet Larissa Dornelles, a MD student from the Faculty of Medicine, ULisboa. Nice too see her enthusiasm about the work we are doing in the lab.
New flash card about the structure of ADCs
February 2022
For details please check the following recommended literature
Unlocking the potential of antibody–drug conjugates for cancer therapy Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2021, 18, 327
Participation in the Lisbon BioMed day
February 2022
We are ready to host the PhD students of the Lisbon BioMed program next week (Feb 16, 14.30 to 16.30). Please join us in room 8 (floor 0) of Egas Moniz building.
Results of the 4th mentorship call
February 2022
Xurxo García-Otero, a PhD student from the University of Santiago de Compostela doing a internship at iMM with the SIMICA coordinator Bruno Oliveira chose Luis Cruz from LUMC as his mentor. Xurxo is interested in learning how nanomaterials can be explored for drug delivery.
SIMICA paper highlighted by Bioconjugate Chemistry
Publishing in open access
February 2022
Our publication describing arylethynyltrifluoroborate dienophiles for chemically triggered IEDDA reactions is now on open access.Newsletter - new issue out
January 2022
Check out SIMICA Newsletter N.5. Learn more about different approaches to produce ADCs.Recognition award
January 2022
Congratulations to Gonçalo Bernardes for being named as finalist of the 2022 @BlavatnikAwards for Young Scientists in the UK. Read more about the prestigious Blavatnik Awards here.
Collaborative work ahead
January 2022
Another great collaboration ahead with Professor Franklin Aigbirhio, head of the Molecular Imaging Chemistry Laboratory at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre (Cambridge Biomedical Campus). Together we are developing new cysteine specific reagents for protein radiolabeling. Stay tuned.
Scientific meeting with Neoleukin to discuss ongoing projects
January 2022
Great meeting between Bruno Oliveira (iMM), Gonçalo Bernardes (UCAM), Daniel-Adriano Silva (Neoleukin), Jilliane Bruffey (University of Washington, David Baker Lab) and Derrick Hicks (University of Washington, David Baker Lab) to discuss recent work about new designed protein-drug conjugates for cancer therapy.
SIMICA´s lecture
January 2022
SIMICA´s lecture "The Art of Conveying and Convincing - From Grant Writing To Lay-Level Presentations" from Alan Chan (Percuros) is now available for streaming. If interested watch it here!!
4th mentorship call
January 2022
The call for the 4th mentorship programme targeted at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers is now open from 14 January until 31 January 2022. If you have any questions please contact anamguerreiro@medicina.ulisboa.pt
Happy New Year!
January 2022
Wishing you a healthy and safe 2022.
Season´s greetings from SIMICA
December 2021
We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Mentoring program for s
December 2021
the clinical research projects ongoing at the host institute. Please welcome our mentee Larissa Dornelles, we hope you have a good experience and learn more about the develpment of ADCs.
SIMICA´S lecture
December 2021
Alan Chan from Precuros is the speaker of the next SIMICA lecture (Dec. 10, 2021, 15:00 GMT, meeting room P3-C-32 at IMM) presenting "The Art of Conveying and Convincing - From Grant Writing To Lay-Level Presentations".
iMed weekly seminar
November 2021
Gonçalo Bernardes gave a seminar for iMed (Research Institute for Medicines, Lisbon Faculty of Pharmacy) (Nov. 5, 2021, 12:00 GMT) with the title "Translational Chemical Biology" which can been seen now online.
Book suggestion
October 2021
Antibody–drug conjugates represent one of the most promising and exciting areas of anticancer drug discovery. If you want to deep your knowledge about ADCs do not miss this excellent book from the RSC "Cytotoxic Payloads for Antibody–Drug Conjugates".
Meeting Peter Senter from SeaGen, world leader and pioneer in Antibody-Drug Conjugates
October 2021
Seattle genetics was the first company to bring an ADC therapy (Adcetris) to the market. It is a privilege to have Peter Senter on our advisory board. Thank you for your insights and knowledge. Know the story behind Adcetris here.
Dissemination
October 2021
Gonçalo Bernardes is the speaker of the next NCCR lecture (Nov. 29, 2021, 16:15). If you are interested on methods for protein modification, new bioorthogonal cleavage reactions for drug activation and RNA click-degraders please do registerand here bit.ly/g-bernardes
Another great meeting
October 2021
It was good to discuss with Luis Cruz from LUMC and Ana Luiza from PERC the progress of the ongoing work about liposomes for drug delivery. Stay tuned for details. Ana, why so serious? :)
Results of the 2nd SIMICA Scholarship to attend international meetings
October 2021
It is our pleasure to announce that three scholarships for the last call will be awarded to:
- Maria Rebelo - IDweek2021, annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA),
- Rita Soares - XVII Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience
- Ana Ramos - AD/PD 2022 International Conference on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases
2nd SIMICA Scholarship to attend international meetings
September 2021
For iMMers, the next cut-off date for the SIMICA Scholarship for the attendance of international conferences is the 27th September. Don’t miss the chance to attend an international scientific conference in 2021 and get the registration fee, traveling, accommodation and daily subsistence expenses covered.
For further details, please contact anamguerreiro@medicina.ulisboa.pt.
Science education
September 2021
IMM receives visits from students of secondary schools to engage them with research projects taking place at the institute. During last days Margarida Leite (Escola Secundária D. Martinho Vaz de Castelo Branco) and Afonso Cunha (Escola Secundária D. Rainha Leonor) visited our lab for 2 mornings. During their visits they were shadowing PhD students in the lab doing their work.
Work in progress
September 2021
Meeting between Bruno Oliveira and Ana Luiza from PERC to finalize the details of WP4 "Strengthening the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem".
Good luck Claúdia
September 2021
Claúdia Afonso, a PhD student at iMM, just started her exchange visit in the Chemistry Department of the University of Cambridge to work with Gonçalo Bernardes and Michele Vendruscolo. Over the next 6 months she will develop new chemical reactions for controlled acetylation of Tau protein to study neurodegenerative diseases.
Computational designed ADCs
September 2021
Dr. Daniel Zaidman, a Blavatnik Postdoctoral Fellow from Cambridge, visited iMM to explain how bioinformatics methods can be explored to design Antibody-Drug Conjugates with increased target specificity and affinity.
Practical course in bioluminescence powered by PERC
September 2021
Last month Silvia Sobol from PERC organized a 1 day course about bioluminescent imaging at iMM. This course offered an integrated overview of the mechanisms and applications of bioluminescence for in vivo imaging, by covering all the key issues from the chemistry of bioluminescence to biological applications (e.g. visualization of tumor progression and metastasis).
Gonçalo presented at ISySyCat
August 2021
The International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis (#ISySyCat21) was great! Gonçalo Bernardes shared the latest advances on bioorthogonal bond-cleavage reactions for drug delivery. We are exploring these approaches for drug decaging from ADCs.
Upcoming seminar
August 2021
The SIMICA´s Seminars on Career Pathways invites speakers to discuss their path from Chemistry/Biology degrees to their current position, as well as to educate students about opportunities outside of academia. Our next speaker is Stuart Cantrill, Chief Editor of Nature Chemistry, that will speak about publishing in science on 11-11-2021. Save the date. Further details soon.
Thank you FCT for the funding
August 2021
Very happy to announce that our coordinator Bruno Oliveira just got his first grant as PI from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) focused on the combination of click chemistry and sequencing approaches to study potential roles of glycoRNA in cancer biology. This was a joint application with our partner Gonçalo Bernardes. Stay tuned!!
Results of the 3rd mentorship call
August 2021
Another successful mentorship programme established. On this call Luis Monteiro, a MD doing his PhD in the group of João Barata at IMM chose Bruno Oliveira as his mentor. Luis is interested in learning how to chemically modify a molecule that is being study in the lab to target Acute Myeloid Leukemia with the goal of improving its in vivo properties.
SIMICA paper highlighted by Bioconjugate Chemistry
July 2021
New publication about chemically triggered IEDDA reactions for protein modification
July 2021
Strained dienophiles are too unstable and unstrained dienophiles are too slow to react. Using an unstrained alkyne-BF3 dienophile we developed the first fast and chemically triggered IEDDA reaction for protein modification. More details here.
3rd mentorship call
July 2021
The call for the 3rd mentorship programme targeted at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers is now open from 19 July until 02 August 2021. If you have any questions please contact
anamguerreiro@medicina.ulisboa.pt
Please meet the Twinning partners:
Acquisition of Allcyte by Exscientia highlighted by C&EN
June 2021
The merge of @Allcyte and @exscientiaAI is highlighted by C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News) a weekly news magazine published by the American Chemical Society, providing professional and technical news and analysis in the fields of chemistry and chemical engineering.
Well done Allcyte, well deserved
June 2021
We are proud to know that @Allcyte was acquired by @exscientiaAI to join forces on the discovery of better drugs using patient-first AI. It is a privilege to have Allcyte/Exscientia on board. Further details here.
Our work is highlighted in a Bioconjugate Chemistry virtual issue
June 2021
We are happy to announce that our recent publication has been selected to appear in a virtual issue on “Bioorthogonal Chemistry and Bioconjugation” at Bioconjugate Chemistry.
See the message from the editors:
"Congratulations! We looked through a large number of papers to come up with what we felt best represented the most exciting advances in recent years, and we are very pleased to include your paper in the group. I hope you enjoy the issue, which can be found here. We would be grateful if you would let your coauthors know, and also spread the word to any colleagues who might take interest in the collection."
We thank the editors Vince Rotello, Jan van Hest, and Gang Zheng for the selection.
Exciting collaborations ahead with Neoleukin
June 2021
Our partner Gonçalo Bernardes is visiting the US for the next 2 weeks to discuss ongoing projects regarding the modification of de novo proteins as therapeutic agents for treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Stay tuned!
UCAM partner presented at the oncobiology club of iMM
June 2021
Mar Cabeza-Cabrerizo from UCAM presented her work at iMM about "Development of multiparameter medical imaging tools for cancer diagnosis".
Dissemination material
June 2021
We will be sharing a series of flashcards for protein modification. Want to know how to improve stability of maleimides for bioconjugation? Check out our first flashcard. If interested download it here
Winners of the 1st SIMICA scholarship call
May 2021
Congratulations for the following iMMers that won the 1st scholarship to attend an international conference:
- Marta Marques, who will present her work on Exploring a CPO-probe as selective inhibitor of Human GAPDH at the FEBS Congress 2021 (3-8 July 2021), virtual meeting.
- Bárbara Sousa, who will present her work on "From prostate to B-cell cancers: the importance of cysteine modification" at the conference Interfacing Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery RICT 2021 (7-9th July, 2021), virtual meeting.
- Gonçalo Nogueira, who will present his work on "Effect of antiretroviral therapy on liver stage development of Plasmodium parasites and whole-organism vaccination against malaria " (25-27 May 2021), virtual meeting.
- David Barata, who will present his work on "Development of a colorectal tumor-on-a- chip model for assessment of precision nanomedicine delivery" at the 11th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal use in the life sciences (23 August – 2 September 2021), virtual meeting.
SIMICA´s inspirational lectures
May 2021
Michele Vendruscolo from the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, recently presented his work about "Rational Design of Conformation-Specific Antibodies Targeting Protein Aggregates". If you missed it you can now access the full lecture online.
SIMICA´s inspirational lectures
May 2021
Pablo Lara presented his work on extracellular vesicles for drug delivery. If you missed it you can watch it here.
Raising public awareness
May 2021
Disseminating our next lecture on FB. Don´t miss it on 21-05-2021.
Vicente de Seabra medal awarded to Gonçalo Bernardes
April 2021
Congratulations to Gonçalo for receiving the Vicente de Seabra 2020 medal from Sociedade Portuguesa de Química.
SIMICA lecture
April 2021
Another great event organized by SIMICA. Timo Schomann from Percuros spoke about fluorescent tags for bioimaging.
1st SIMICA scholarship for the attendance of international conferences
March 2021
The next cut-off date for the SIMICA scholarship for the attendance of international conferences is the 26th of April 2021.
If you are an IMMer, don’t miss the opportunity to attend an international scientific conference in 2021 and get the registration fee, travelling, accommodation and daily subsistence expenses covered. You just need to fill in the forms and send it to simicaimm@gmail.com . The external evaluation panel will select the awardees. If you need any additional information please contact Ana Guerreiro, anamguerreiro@medicina.ulisboa.pt
Partnering in science
February 2021
COLife is an alliance between six research institutes in life sciences located in the region of Lisbon and Oeiras. Their main focus is to contribute to the cooperation and development of interdisciplinary science in the Lisbon area. More details can be found here https://colife.eu/en/. Their help has been of importance for the dissemination of our seminars.
Results of the 2nd mentorship call
February 2021
The second call of the SIMICA'S mentorship programme selected Christian Ramos, from Carmo Fonseca’s lab as a mentoree. Christian is a postdoctoral researcher and expects to improve his mentorship skills in RNA degraders and high throughput screening of cancer drugs in human tissue using high content imaging and deep learning.
His SIMICA mentors will be Gonçalo Bernardes (UCam) and Nikolaus Krall (Allcyte).
Congratulations Christian and good work!
SIMICA news coverage in C&EN
January 2021
Work from our partner Gonçalo Bernardes at ChemCambridge is featured this week in C&EN. Wonderful work about “New system cuts RNA using only small molecules”. Please check https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemistry/rna/New-system-cuts-RNA-using/98/web/2020/11?utm_source=YMAL&utm_medium=YMAL&utm_campaign=CEN&utm_content=pos1
2nd mentorship call
January 2021
As part of its activities, SIMICA implements a mentorship programme targeted at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. The next call for the SIMICA MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME will be open from 12 to 23 of January 2021. If you have any questions please contact anamguerreiro@medicina.ulisboa.pt
We need you!
January 2021
We are looking for a partner to organize a workshop about antibody production and purification. If you have any suggestion please contact us.
Happy New Year!
SIMICA wishes everyone a year full of discoveries and success.
Season greetings!
The SIMICA Twinning Project wishes everyone a Merry Christmas 🎅
https://twitter.com/SIMICA_iMM/status/1341036757538713600?s=20
New publication on methods for antibody modification
December 2020
Our paper about new carbonyl acrylate reagents for cysteine modification having Diels-Alder handles for in vivo pretargeting applications is out. This strategy allowed efficient coupling of the antibody Thiomab and a radiolabelled tetrazine at the tumor site to maximize targeting efficacy and reduce accumulation on non-target organs. Check it here!!!
Strengthening collaborations with Cambridge
November 2020
We are pleased to announce that SIMICA´s coordinator Bruno Oliveira was appointed visiting researcher at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge.
Congratulations!
November 2020
To Gonçalo Bernardes for being one of 4 young scientists selected by the ICBS@ChemBioSociety to receive the 2020 Young Chemical Biologist award.
Bruno Oliveira has also been admitted as a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry. As part of the RSC, new opportunities for collaboration and networking are created to enhance innovation on the field of antibody bioconjugation.
SIMICA first annual meeting
October 2020
The first annual SIMICA meeting was held on the 20th of October of 2020 in-person for Bruno Oliveira (iMM), Gonçalo Bernardes (UCAM), Alan Chan (PERC), Ana Luiza (PERC) or online for Katja Bierau (PERC), Luiz Cruz (LUMC) and Nikolaus Krall (Allcyte). The meeting had also the invaluable contribution of the Advisory Board Representatives, who also participated virtually through video conference.
Good luck Maria Rebelo
October 2020
We are pleased to announce that our first Staff-exchange visit is just ahead. Maria Rebelo is visiting the lab of Gonçalo Bernardes at Cambridge for the next 3 months.
SIMICA scholarship for the attendance of international conferences
June 2020
Due to the COVID19 pandemic the management team agreed in cancelling this call as the majority of the international conferences in 2020 were cancelled or postponed. A new call is expected to be open in March 2021. Stay tuned.
Results of the 1st mentorship call
May 2020
The first call of the SIMICA´'S mentorship programme selected Ravikumar Govindan which will be mentored by Dr Luis Cruz from LUMC. Ravikumar is a postdoctoral researcher at iMM and is interested in improving his skills on the field of nanomaterials for targeted drug delivery and bioimaging.
1st mentorship call
March 2020
The first call of the SIMICA mentorship programme is now open! The calls for this programme, targeted at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, is opened every 6 months.
If you are an IMMer, don’t miss the chance to learn from our Twinning partners!
Our partner Allcyte is recruiting
February 2020
Allcyte team is growing! Allcyte is recruiting a lab manager / technical research assistant to support their translational efforts - for more information see: https://www.allcyte.com/careers
Our newsletter has a new face
January 2020
Our Newsletter N.2 is out, come and see the latest news here. Check also our new template!
Our website is online
November 2019
Have you checked out the SIMICA website? Stay tuned for upcoming SIMICA news here.
SIMICA´s Kick-off meeting
October 2019
The SIMICA'S´ Kick-Off Meeting took place on the 28th of October in Lisbon and was very profitable in terms of experience sharing regarding European projects and scientific discussion! Meet the SIMICA Consortium faces!
