Tendon Regeneration: Understanding Tissue Physiology and Development to Engineer Functional Substitutes

Manuela E. Gomes is Associate Professor and Vice-President of the Research Institute for Biomaterials, Biodegradable and Biomimetics at the University of Minho. Dr. Gomes is also on the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Associate Laboratory that gathers the Institute for Life and Health Sciences of the University of Minho and the 3B´s Research Group and was responsible for the implementation of the Quality Management System at the 3B’s. She is a board member of the Doctoral Program on Tissue Engineering Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells and has been part of numerous European and national/regional projects as PI/member. She was awarded a Consolidator Grant and a PoC from the European Research Council that started in 2018 and 2022, respectively. She has edited 2 books, 1 encyclopedia, and is author of 43 book chapters, 226 scientific papers in journals with international peer-review, 9 patents and over 344 communications in international conferences.

Dr. Rui Reis is Vice-President for Research and Innovation of University of Minho, Portugal, Director of 3B’s Research Group and Director of ICVS/3B´s Associate Laboratory, both of UMinho. He’s the CEO of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, the Coordinator of the Discoveries Centre for Regenerative and Precision Medicine, the Global Past-President of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society and the Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. He’s edited 18 books, 10 special issue journals, 280 book chapters and has more than 1225 published works listed on ISI Web of Knowledge, being an inventor of around 70 patents. He’s been awarded many important international prizes, including the TERMIS-EU contributions to the literature Award and the TERMIS-EU Career Achievement Award, and recently the UNESCO- International Life Sciences Award and the IET A. F. Harvey Engineering Research Prize.

Márcia T. Rodrigues is an Assistant Researcher the Research Institute for Biomaterials, Biodegradable and Biomimetics at the University of Minho. Her research is focused on strategies to study persistent inflammation cues and associated pathways that impair tissue healing and regeneration. Dr. Rodrigues has mentored and supervised several PhD, MSc, and BSc students. Currently, she supervises 1 PhD student and mentors 3 post-doctoral fellows. She has also been part of the scientific committee and organization of 8 international scientific events and acts as a peer reviewer in > 20 major international journals in the field. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of IJMS and editor of 2 special issues for IJMS and Adv Drug Deliv Rev (2022). Dr. Rodrigues co-edited one scientific book Tendon Regeneration (Elsevier), authored 13 book chapters, 1 Encyclopedia chapter, 48 papers in international refereed journals, 3 featured articles, and 4 corresponding author papers.

Ana Gonçalves is an Individual Fellow (Junior researcher), at the 3Bs Research Group, University of Minho, Portugal. Ana holds a PhD in Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine, and Stem Cells from University of Minho and in collaboration with Keele University, UK (2017). Ana has worked under 5 National financed projects (with fellowship) being actively involved at the start of a research line at her Institution (Tendon Tissue Engineering). She is core team member in 4 ongoing projects and is Co-Chair of the Achilles Conferences organized under the scope of the H2020 Twinning Project Achilles. In addition, Ana has presented her work in the most important conferences of the field such as TERMIS, EORS, and MagMeet, in which she had active participations such as co-chairing sessions, reviewing abstracts, and being involved in the organization of symposia. Ana was recently elected member of the TERMIS-EU Communication and Outreach committee (2021-2024).

Dimitrios Zeugolis is the Director of the Regenerative, Modular & Developmental Engineering Laboratory (REMODEL), Full Professor at the School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, Principal Investigator at the Charles Institute of Dermatology and Senior Fellow at the Conway Institute of Biomolecular & Biomedical Research, all at University College Dublin (UCD), IE. He is Adjunct Professor at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway), IE and Co-Director of the Laboratory of Animal Science, Nutrition and Biotechnology, University of Ioannina, Greece. He is Editorial Committee member of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS), Irish Ambassador of the European Orthopaedic Research Society (EORS) and Council Member of Matrix Biology Ireland (MBI). He is also Editor-in-Chief of Biomaterials and Biosystems (Elsevier), Senior Editorial Board member of BMC Biomedical Engineering (Springer Nature) and Associate Editor of Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.