Hot-Topic Session: "Proteins Vs. DNA as diagnostic tool" will be on February 13th, where Joana Guerreiro (PhD), Professor Rúben Fernandes and Ana Cláudia Pereira (PhD) will discuss their works in the field and respective point of view.

Joana Guerreiro received her degree in chemical engineering from the School of Engineering of Porto in 2007 and her MSc in Technology, Science and Food Safety from the Faculty of Sciences of Porto University. Then, she got her PhD in Chemistry (Denmark), focusing on the development of plasmonic nanosensors. Currently, Joana is a scientific researcher at BioMark Sensor Research (ISEP) - Centre of Biology Engineering (CEB). Through her scientific path, she gained strong experience in the development of new materials and devices for the detection of specific target molecules, and will discuss the role of proteins as a diagnostic tool in this Hot-Topic Session.

Rúben Fernandes is Full Professor at Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, from Fernando Pessoa University (FCS-UFP), since 2022. He worked as Assistant Professor at Porto Polytechnic Institute from 2003 to 2022. He holds the title of Habilitation in Biomedicine since 2017 by the Faculty of Medicine from the University of Porto. Ana Cláudia Pereira is Assistant Professor at Fernando Pessoa University (UFP) and a researcher at the Center for Genomic Medicine at the University Hospital Fernando Pessoa (HE-FP). Her research focus involves the use of specific nucleic acids called aptamers and she is currently the Principal Investigator of an exploratory project that focuses on the use of aptamers for diagnosis and therapy in personalized medicine for clinical application. Rúben and Claudia will discuss the role of DNA as a diagnostic tool in this Hot-Topic Session.