João M. M. Rodrigues has been working in Biomaterials Science and Tissue Engineering filed since joining the COMPASS Research
Group in 2017. He started his academic journey with a graduation in Industrial Chemistry at University of Coimbra in 2007.
Then he moved to University of Aveiro (UA), where he completed MSc degree in 2010, in Organic Chemistry. In 2012 he was granted
with a FCT PhD Fellowship where he enrolled in the Chemistry doctoral plan under the supervision of Professors João Tomé and
José Cavaleiro. His PhD (2012-2015) research plan was focused on Organic and Supramolecular Chemistry, namely in the synthesis
and characterization of new porphyrins and phthalocyanines molecules, their combination with nanomaterials and the evaluation
of their properties as anion chemosensors and photosensitizers. He also had the opportunity to expand his knowledge by become
a visiting PhD student at Kyoto University, Japan, under the supervision of Professor Takashi Morii.
After concluding his PhD, he moved to UK in 2016 for a Postdoctoral Research Assistant position at University of Hull under
the supervision of Professor Ross Boyle, where his research was focused on the synthesis of porphyrin-monoclonal antibody
conjugates for photodynamic therapy of head and neck cancer.
In 2017 he joined the COMPASS Research Group, from top level CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials at UA, as a Junior Research
Fellow. Joining the COMPASS RG, led by Prof. João Mano, he has been making use of his consolidated knowledge in Organic and
Supramolecular Chemistry to perform research in the modification and functionalization of polysaccharides and proteins to
be used in functional biomaterials for biomedical applications, such as tissue bone regeneration.
In 2018, he was granted with 2 projects: a FCT project COP2P (PTDC/QUI-QOR/30771/2017) where he was Principal Investigator
and Coordinator (233 keuro), and BLUEGLUE project (FA_05_2017_031) in which he was Coordinator and Core-Team (200 keuro).
He is also a research member of other ongoing projects, all related with biomedical applications.
Currently, JR is a Junior Researcher (CEECIND/01363/2018), supervises 3 PhD and 1 MSc students, summing up a total of 10 (co)-supervisions
since the beginning of his scientific path. He has published 1 book chapter and 23 peer-reviewed papers (5 first-authorship,
5 corresponding-author) in high impact international journals (88% of his papers were published in Q1 journals), summing 344
citations and an h-index 11, and is inventor in 3 patents.
He reviewed articles for several international journals relevant for his field, Sens. Actuators B, Acta Biomater, Adv. Mater.,
Adv. Mater. Bio.. Is also Guest-Editor of two special issues ("Marine Drugs" and "Polymers" journals). He has been enthusiastic
to attend highly recognized scientific meetings, with 8 oral talk (2 invited) and poster (>30) presentations.
He has been involved in the organization of scientific events, the most recent one was “SupraLife First School” (https://www.supralife.eu/firstschool/)
(2023) (Organizing committee)
JR has been actively working in the preparation of competitive national/international proposals, such as ERC-Consolidation
grants (helped in the preparation of a winner proposal - REBORN (Ref. 883370 ERC-2019-ADG)), ETN-Marie Sklodowska-Curie ITN,
COST Actions, FET Flagships and FCT projects.
His interesses are focused on the processing marine polymer-based materials into high-added value biomedical devices to decisively
contribute for positioning CICECO at an international competitive level in this field.