(Chemical) Bonding is what makes life possible

Joana Pereira was born in Lisbon in 1998. She graduated in Biochemistry from the NOVA School of Science and Technology (FCT NOVA) in 2019. During the last semester of the Bachelor Program, she had the opportunity to do her final project, developed in a partnership between Instituto Superior Técnico and Portuguese Oncology Institute of Lisbon, on the evaluation of the cytotoxic effect of two new anticancer agents using dendrimers as drug deliveries. She just finished her master¿s degree in Molecular Genetics and Biomedicine at FCT NOVA. She developed her master thesis at DES.Solve research group, during which she evaluated the potential of Therapeutic Deep Eutectic Systems (THEDES) based on terpenes and anti-inflammatory drugs as new tools to fight colorectal cancer. After finishing her Master thesis, she start to work as a research fellow on DES.Solve research group, where she evaluated the bioactivity of different extracts obtained using Deep Eutectic Systems (DES) as solvents and stabilizers, and in simultaneous she also evaluated the cryopreserving potential of DES. In order to continue the research started during her master thesis, she pursue as a PhD student, and is currently evaluating THEDES antiproliferative potential using in vivo more similar models of colorectal cancer, like spheroids, organoids and zebrafish xenografts. Additionally, she is developing a nanoformulation to encapsulate these THEDES in study.