Team

António Mateus-Pinheiro, PhD

Board Member/Co-founder

António Mateus-Pinheiro has a degree in Applied Biology and in Medicine, both in the University of Minho, Portugal. He developed his PhD thesis in the field of neurosciences, studying adult brain neuroplasticity and regeneration in the context of stress-related disorders. In his PhD work, António studied the impact of synapto-dendritic remodelling and the functional relevance of hippocampal neural stem cells and their progeny to different cognitive and emotional behavioral domains, both in healthy and chronically stressed animals. Moreover, he investigated epigenetic modifications underlying depressive behavior and antidepressant mechanisms, in a conjoint project between the University of Minho (PT) and Queen Mary University of London (UK).
He is currently a Resident Doctor in Internal Medicine, in Coimbra Hospital and University Centre (CHUC), and collaborates as Assistant Professor at the Coimbra University.

A. Mateus-Pinheiro authored and co-authored several original research articles, reviews, patents and book chapters (15 peer-reviewed publications, with an accumulated impact factor over 100).
In recent years, António also devoted himself to the development of new tools for preclinical drug testing, and had additional training in several areas of management, accounting and entrepreneurship.

E-mail: apinheiro@bnml.eu

João Miguel Bessa, MD, PhD

Board Member/Co-founder

João Bessa is an MD, PhD, board-certified Psychiatrist, currently working as Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Anatomy at the School of Medicine, University of Minho, Principal Investigator at ICVS/3B’s Associate Laboratory and 2CA – Clinical Academic Center Braga and as Assistant Psychiatrist at Hospital de Braga, Portugal. Co-author of several original research articles and book chapters. Expert reviewer for several scientific journals and international funding agencies. Recent primary research focus: translational approaches to neuroplasticity and functional connectivity in depression. Ambassador of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) in Portugal from 2013-2017 and President Elect of the Portuguese Society of Psychiatry and Mental Health (SPPSM) since 2020.

E-mail: joaobessa@bnml.eu

Luísa Pinto, PhD

Board Member/Co-founder

Luisa Pinto (PhD) has graduated in Biochemistry by the University of Coimbra and performed an internship at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) on therapeutic tools for Parkinson’s Disease. She holds a PhD in Neurosciences by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Germany). She is currently an Assistant Researcher at the ICVS, focusing on novel therapeutics for Depression and an Invited Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Minho. Research skills cover stem cell biology; assessment of neuroplastic events; behavioral tests; electrophysiological techniques; stem cell cultures and pre-clinical animal models. She authored and co-authored over 50 scientific publications, cited above 1500 times. She has also received training in management and entrepreneurship.

E-mail: luisapinto@bnml.eu

Nuno Sousa, MD, PhD

Nuno Sousa is a Neuroradiologist and a full Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Minho. He is the President of the 2CA-Braga – Clinical Academic Centre and of the P5 Centre of Digital Medicine, in Braga. He coordinates several research projects at the ICVS, University of Minho and has published over 450 scientific articles on different areas of neuroscience. Nuno participates in several scientific consulting councils and is the Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience Journal.

E-mail: njcsousa@bnml.eu

Patrícia Patrício, PhD

Board Member/Co-founder

Patrícia Patrício graduated in Applied Biology. She holds a master’s in molecular Genetics and Biomedicine from the New University of Lisbon in collaboration with the Cancer Epigenetics group of the Portuguese Oncology Institute in Porto, and a post-graduation in Business Management by the University Institute of Maia (ISMAI)/ANJE. She has also received training in entrepreneurship, management, technology transfer, intellectual property, clinical research and leadership.

Patrícia has a PhD in Health Sciences, in the field of Neurosciences, from the School of Medicine, University of Minho, where she also developed her post doc research, in collaboration with international Universities, between 2017 and 2019. She has published more than 30 papers in scientific international journals and presented her work to several national and international audiences. She is also a reviewer of scientific papers in international journals, including Neuroscience, Neuropharmacology e Psychiatric Research.

She is a member of the Board of directors at National Association for Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE) and at B.ACIS – Association for Science, Innovation and Health.

E-mail: patriciapatricio@bnml.eu

Nuno Ribeiro, Certified Accountant, Post-Graduate

Accountant/Financial Controller/Management Assistant

Nuno holds a Management degree by the School Universitas Catholica Lusitana and a post-graduation in business taxation by the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal. He has over ten years of financial management experience. His core competences include financial management, management and costs control, cost accounting, fiscal reports and performance evaluation.