ConChiMol project members communicate their work at 15ENQO/ 8ENQT in Faro, Algarve (Jan 2024)

Rui M. M. Brito holds a BSc (Licenciatura) in Biochemistry from the University of Coimbra, a PhD in Biochemistry from Rice University, Houston, USA, and carried out post-doctoral studies at Oxford University, UK under the guidance of Prof. Christopher Dobson. He has been a visiting scientist at the University of Cincinnati (USA) in the group of Prof. Paul Rosevear, the Johns Hopkins University (USA) in the group of Prof. Ernesto Freire, and at the Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP), Berlin, Germany, in the group of Prof. Hartmut Oschkinat. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry at the University of Coimbra (UC), principal investigator of the Coimbra Chemistry Center – Institute of Molecular Sciences, and coordinator of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy facility at UC (UC-NMR) (www.uc.pt/uc-nmr/). He is co-founder and the CSO of the spin-off biotech company BSIM Therapeutics (www.bsimtx.com).

Rui Brito has been the Principal Investigator of multiple research projects, attracting to the University of Coimbra more than 3.5 M € in the last 10 years. He has supervised or co-supervised 10 PhD students, has published 90 papers in peer-reviewed international journals with close to 3000 citations, and is an inventor in 3 USA patents and 1 European patent.

Anthony Burke is an associate professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy University of Coimbra and a Chemistry Europe fellow. He has a PhD from University College Dublin and conducted post-doctoral research in Oxford (Dyson Perrins Lab) and ITQB, Portugal. He moved to the University of Coimbra in early 2022. He has over 150 works (includes books, book chapters, papers, patents, editorials and oral presentations etc) and has coordinated many projects. He was the vice-president of the organic chemistry division of the Portuguese Society of Chemistry between 2011-2013, founded Chiratecnics Ltd (www.chirarecnics.com) in 2009, is the chairman of the International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis series (ISySyCat15, ISySyCat17, ISySyCat19, ISySyCat21, ISySyCat23 and the forthcoming ISySyCat25) and is an associate editor for Frontiers in Chemistry – Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and an editorial board member of Chemistry Open (De Gruyter). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Milan, University of Kyoto, Instituto Superior Tecnico-University of Lisbon, Boehringer Ingelheim (Connecticut, USA) and others. He has extensive experience in synthesis and catalysis. He has been an evaluator of several international and national grant applications. He has coordinated several national and international projects in the past and is the coordinator of the ConChiMol project

Luís Branco is an assistant professor at at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology New University of Lisbon and a member of the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry (REQUIMTE). His interests lie in the area of clean energy technologies, as well as materials that can enable new technologies. Recently, his group has worked on areas such as redox flow batteries (RFBs), lithium ion batteries (LIBs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic semiconducting laser diodes (OSLDs), reticular frameworks (e.g., MOFs, COFs), catalysis, electrocatalysis (e.g., OER), sodium ion batteries (SIBs), thermoelectrics (TE), 2D materials, and photovoltaic devices (PVs). The group also develops computational tools to produce, manage, and store large amounts of data from calibrated electronic calculations, allowing rapid navigation of the chemical space. He is interested in machine learning methods, like for example, the development of generative models and
genetic algorithms for inverse design of molecules and materials, which allow a smart search of the chemical space based on desired properties/functionalities. These approaches are used for the optimization of experimental properties. His group also uses automated robotic
platforms (such as our Chemspeed system) to operate in a closed-loop approach for the synthesis of new materials.

Vítor A. S. Almodôvar completed his BSc in Biochemistry and MSc in Chemistry (specialization in Materials Chemistry), both at University of Évora. He was then awarded a scholarship to work on the synthesis of new diketopyrrolopyrroles derivatives for application in DSSCs, in the Chemistry Department at the University of Aveiro and the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry (REQUIMTE). Due to his interest in this field, he enrolled as a PhD student in Chemistry at the University of Aveiro and won a Fulbright scholarship to study the synthesis and structural/photophysical characterization of diketopyrrolopyrroles for technical and biological applications.

Ana Catarina Amorim holds both an MSc and a BSc degree in biochemistry from the University of Évora, Portugal. During her studies, she focused on synthesizing novel 1,2,3-triazoles using innovative synthetic methods and also developed novel catalytic techniques for accessing biologically active heterocyclic compounds. Subsequently, she worked as a contracted researcher on the NAUTILUS project and at ChiraTecnics (www.chiratecnics.com). In 2022, she was awarded a scholarship from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia to pursue her PhD at the Coimbra Chemistry Centre – Institute for Molecular Structure, Chemistry Department, University of Coimbra. Currently, as part of her PhD research and as a member of the ConChiMol project, she is developing new organic semiconductors for electronic devices, namely OLEDs and OTFTs.

Sandra Gago is an assistant Researcher within the Cultural Heritage and Responsive Materials” group (CHARM) of the Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry, in the Chemistry Department at the New University of Lisbon. She has published 71 papers in international peer review journals and 2 chapters in books and 1 patent. She has supervised several post-graduate and undergraduate students. She participated in 7 funded projects as team member and was Co-PI of an Exploratory Research Project “Eutectic Systems as sustainable electrolytes for energy storage” under the MIT Portugal Program (call 2021). Her research interests comprise design and characterization of new functional materials based on mesoporous silica and magnetic nanoparticles, inorganic/organometallic complexes and pharmaceutical ionic liquids for different applications: electrochromic/photochromic devices, (photo)catalysis and drug delivery.

Simon Lawrence obtained his BSc and PhD from Durham University. After post-doctoral positions at the University of Manchester and Imperial College London he moved to University College Cork where he is a lecturer in inorganic and materials chemistry. His research interests are in the understanding of the organic solid state where he leads a group investigating issues such as crystal engineering, crystallisation, polymorphism, co-crystallisation and crystal growth. He was Chair of the COST Action CM1402 on “From molecules to crystals – how do organic molecules form crystals? (Crystallize)” from 2015-2018. He contributes his expertise in single crystal diffraction to this project.

Henrique Leonel Gomes is as Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Coimbra University. He heads the Organic Electronics and Bioelectronics research group. His research interests have been directed towards the electrical characterisation of electronic devices. He has a recognized experience in small signal impedance measurement techniques. In the field of organic electronics, key contributions include: (i) studies of gate bias stress in organic transistors, (ii) systematic investigation of polymer Schottky diodes and understanding their ac small signal response through equivalent circuit modelling and (iii) studies of resistive switching on polymer-based memory devices (plastic-RRAMs). Since 2000, his research activities have expanded to encompass the interaction between electronic devices and living cells to develop bioelectronic and biomedical devices