Short Bio

I have a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedicine and a Master’s degree in Clinical Laboratory Biology, and I am currently a Biomedicine’s PhD student at Nova Medical School in Lisbon. My project focuses on developing a nanostructured drug delivery system aiming to reduce post-glaucoma surgery complications. We aim to achieve a precise, sequential and sustained release of drugs that can control the excessive fibroblast proliferation that happens during the healing process after a surgical intervention.

Work description

My drug delivery system (DDS) is based on the layer-by-layer technique. The end result is a thin film composed of structural, barrier and drug layers able to release drugs across time. During my visit I will learn more about DDSs and about which techniques can be used to study both film growth and release of drugs over time.

Expectations about the Short-term Research Internship

UT Austin has a vast array of professionals with tremendous experience in nanotechnology and nano-systems as well as in drug delivery systems (DDS). By having the opportunity to realize this internship I hope to learn from one of these experts, Doctor Robert Williams, a set of techniques that will help me to better understand how these systems work, allowing me to fine-tune the architecture of my nanostructured DDS to achieve the desired goal: a controlled and sustained release of drugs.