Joana Caetano-Lopes PhD – project management

My work at the IMM-Biobank focuses on the monitoring of new projects that require the Biobank to be the drive for sample collecting. Within these projects, and depending on the proposed goals, we provide advice on the best way of sampling according to standard protocols of the Biobank. In doing so, we aim that biomedical research using the IMM-Biobank is progressively rigorous and competitive, leading to high impact publications.

It is increasingly acknowledged that in scientific research, collaboration between different laboratories and their teams, often across disciplines and using shared facilities and equipment, can lead to the circulation of new ideas and findings. The IMM-Biobank has fostered the establishment of partnership networks to encourage research at the highest level. Thus, we are involved in bids for collaborative projects nationally.

Ângela Afonso BSc – technical supervisor

My work at the IMM-Biobank as technical supervisor involves ensuring that nothing goes wrong in the entire process, from sample collection to storage. After being collected, samples are processed, subject to quality control, and the corresponding clinical data is processed, until they are finally stored. In addition, it is necessary to continuously manage the laboratory to ensure that nothing fails and that the work is maintained. The Biobank concept may still be unfamiliar to many people, and some may think it is no more than storing samples in freezers. However, the Biobank is much more than just a room with freezers.

One of the great assets of the IMM-Biobank is that its samples are duly organised and have corresponding clinical data. Therefore, the computer system is a key tool for the functioning of the Biobank, as it enables us to manage all data associated with a sample, as well as its entire route up to the box where it is stored. In future, when researchers ask us for those samples, we will be in a position to provide all the information they need to ensure the quality of the sample.

Ricardo Pires BSc – tumour technical consultant

Biomedical research in oncology is an ongoing and increasingly demanding challenge. Although cancer is at the top of leading causes of death worldwide, important advancements have been made in recent years, in an attempt to understand the biology of oncogenesis on the one hand, and, on the other, to identify new therapeutic targets. One of the major difficulties in oncology research is obtaining quality clinical samples in sufficient number to produce robust results and conclusions. It is in this context that tumour banks have been set up as structures whose purpose is to provide samples of tumour tissue with quality and in sufficient quantity, without waiving the ethical component, which is essential when working with human samples. It should be pointed out that samples per se mean little if they are not backed by relevant clinical information.

My mission in the tumour bank of the IMM-Biobank is to ensure that the entire process, from the identification of samples until the collection of relevant clinical data, is conducted correctly and efficiently, safeguarding the ethical and legal aspects governing the functioning of the IMM-Biobank. This involves ensuring the quality of the stored samples and the confidentially of the clinical data collected, which is crucial to establishing a relationship based on trust with the researchers who in the future will request material for their research projects.
Despite being the visible face of the tumour bank of the IMM-Biobank, it is essential to note that the proper functioning of this structure depends on effective relationships and on a multidisciplinary team involving doctors (oncologists, surgeons and anatomic pathologists), nurses and operating assistants.

Laboratory Team:

Rita Cascão, PhD

As a member of the technical staff of the laboratory of the IMM-Biobank, my work focuses primarily on the development and maintenance of cell cultures, as well as on implementing protocols for the immortalization of pluripotent stem cells. In addition, I am also involved in the process of receiving and storing all types of biological samples brought to the IMM-Biobank, and in quality control of DNA extracted from the samples. Ensuring they have a good quality assurance is fundamental to the work of researchers requesting the samples stored at the IMM-Biobank.

The IMM-Biobank has the huge advantage of focusing on the development of cell cultures and on the immortalization of pluripotent stem cells, which are important particularly for the discovery of new drugs. The technology for generating these cells is advancing rapidly and will provide cells that are physiologically relevant to identify toxic compounds, to validate therapeutic targets and to discover new drugs.
The IMM-Biobank enables the development of biomedical, clinical and translational research quickly and effectively, thus contributing to the advancement of knowledge of diseases that have a major impact on health, as well as the development of new diagnostic tests and innovative drugs.

Scientific committee:

Luís Costa MD, PhD
The Scientific Committee of the IMM-Biobank comprises researchers and clinicians from the IMM and HSM-CHLN. Its first mission is to monitor the implementation of the IMM-Biobank project, namely the discussion and analysis of operating procedures. As part of the activities of the IMM-Biobank, the Scientific Committee is responsible for reviewing and authorizing requests for the use of samples stored in the IMM-Biobank.

Technical committee

André Fialho, BSc
Contact details: afialho@fm.ul.pt
As part of the Technical Committee of the IMM-Biobank, my role is to monitor the development of the activity of the biological sample bank from a strictly ethical and legal perspective, in particular ensuring compliance with the legal or regulatory requirements in force for its establishment and operation.

To that effect, it is paramount that the IMM-Biobank is able to interact appropriately with all public entities and services with powers and competencies to licence and regulate on this matter, such as CNPD and local or national Ethics Committees, and to ensure that procedures followed at all times fully comply with the legal and constitutional rights of sample donors.