PRR Project

Summary

Job DescriptionThe employee is expected to:Carry out research activities, participate in the design, coordinate, develop and translate research programmes and projects within the scientific area, particularly in pharmaceutical biotechnology and pharmaceutical nanotechnology, nanomedicines, drug delivery systems and drug targeting. These tasks involve the development and characterization of pharmaceutical products (including in vitro and in vivo evaluation), scale-up and technology transfer. He/she is also expected to attract international and national competitive funding.Coordinate research teams, supervise and participate in training programmes of the institution, develop training activities within the scope of the methodology of scientific research and development, including scientific orientation of students, particularly of doctoral and master´s supervisions in the scientific area (pharmaceutical biotechnology and pharmaceutical nanotechnology, nanomedicines, drug delivery systems and drug targeting, development and characterization of pharmaceutical products).Intervene in the scientific community, showing autonomy and leadership, coordinate and participate in initiatives to create or strengthen laboratory infrastructures to support research. ??????? Scientific ProfileThe candidate should demonstrate proficiency in the development and in vitro/ in vivo evaluation of micro/nanoparticulate systems for effective drug delivery including drug stabilization, co-delivery and targeting, particularly for biological drugs, such as proteins, nucleic acids and antigens for vaccine formulation. Relevance is given to drug and vaccine delivery using non-parenteral routes, such as ocular, oral, pulmonary and intranasal, for improving bioavailability. This includes the modulation of antigen presentation through mucosal immunisation using nanovaccine formulations with enhanced mucoadhesive properties, aiming oral, buccal and intranasal delivery. In this context, the employee should have a solid pharmaceutical biotechnology background, including cell technology, recombinant protein and antigen production, purification and characterization under Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) for scale-up and technology transfer. RationalePharmaceutical Sciences are the main scientific area of any Faculty of Pharmacy. Within this area, the position is aligned with the scientific area of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, which deals with the transformation of bioactive substances and excipients to obtain medicines and health products (e.g. cosmetics, nutraceuticals and medical devices) available in pharmaceutical dosage forms, ensuring that these preparations are endowed with maximum activity, dosed with the greatest precision and presented in a form that facilitates their preservation and administration. It involves the design, formulation and delivery of drugs, the technological processes of drug preparation on a laboratory or industrial scale, as well as their stability, control and quality assurance. It includes the technological and biological foundations, strategies and applications of drug vectorization and molecular therapeutics.During the last three decades, at FFUL this scientific area, has consistently grown and evolved in line with the latest scientific advances in the field of drug delivery and targeting, which is demonstrated by the preeminent scientific production record of the four research groups of the area in iMed.ULisboa (i.e., the Advanced Technologies for Drug Delivery , the Drug Delivery & Immunoengineering , the Pharmaceutical Development and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Engineering research groups). The research work developed by these groups is focused drug development, manufacturing and delivery related to oncological, genetic, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases, as well as the development of personalized medicine. The most recent scientific breakthroughs in these diseases suggest, or have resulted in, biologic products whose market size is steadily increasing, accounting for ca. 430 billion € in 2022. This has also markedly increased the number of national and international research projects involving biologicals and vaccines, with competitive funding or research contracts with the industry, which are currently under development at iMed.ULisboa and need to be duly developed. Thus, the need for mature researchers with a sound biotechnological background to accomplish such commitments.