Miguel Gama

Education

Graduation, Biochemistry, Oporto University, Oporto, 1986
MSc, Biochemical Engineering, Lisbon Technical University, 1991
PhD, Biological Engineering, Minho University, Braga, 1996
Habilitation, Biomedical Engineering, 2012

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Started his research activity in the field of enzymatic technologies, specifically related to the textile and paper industries. The study of glycanases has recently focused on the non-hydrolitic domain, the Carbohydrate Binding Modules (CBM), proteins with affinity for polysaccharides.
Bacterial and human CBMs have been cloned and expressed, and are being functionally characterized and used in the development of technological applications. Biomedical applications such as protein drug delivery and and tissue engineering are being developed. The ongoing development of new polysaccharide based materials for biomedical applications include the production of self-assembling nanoparticles, injectable and biodegradable hydrogels, bacterial cellulose hollow tubes, etc.

Bacterial Cellulose is being produced and characterized at UM labs, and new approaches for the production of porous scaffolds, the modification of the surface properties and the modulation of the interaction with cells, using CBMs fused to bioactive peptides, are among the current projects, that utimately aim at the production of biomaterials for the development of vascular grafts.

The delivery of siRNA, small hydropgobic molecules and proteins, using nanogels made of amphihilic molecules and glycol chitosan nanoprticles generated by self assembling methodologies is another great challenge; the delivery of therapeutic proteins is already being developed, the case study is the delivery of IL10 for the treatment of chronic inflammation.

Personal Interests

Literature, Cinema, Outdoors, Music, Travelling, Sports, Photography.

Books

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