Carla Vitorino is invited assistant professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Coimbra, Portugal (2014-present). She graduated in pharmaceutical sciences in 2007 and obtained her PhD in pharmaceutics in 2013 from the University of Coimbra. She has been working on the application of nanotechnology in drug permeation enhancement strategies for transdermal, oral and drug delivery systems for brain targeting and has published several scientific papers in peer-reviewed, high-impact journals, bringing together her vast experience in pharmaceutical technology, especially in the areas of nanotechnology and regulatory science. Her main research interests are nanotechnology, controlled release and the development of new drug delivery systems with a quality-by-design perspective. Andreia Jorge is research doctorate at the University of Coimbra. She obtained her PhD in macromolecular chemistry in 2013 from the University of Coimbra. During her PhD, she also worked at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona, and the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Ludwig-Maximilians, Germany. She then moved to a postdoctoral fellow position in a joint project with the Coimbra Chemistry Centre and the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia, Spain, where she conducted research on the chemical modification of oligonucleotides with therapeutic applications, using both experimental and computational approaches. Her current research activities are in the fields of chemical-modified therapeutic oligonucleotides (antisense and siRNA) for gene silencing, antiproliferative oligonucleotides, sequence¿specific protein-DNA interactions, lipid- and polymer-based drug delivery systems and programmable self-assembling DNA nanostructures. Alberto A. C. C. Pais is full professor of chemistry and head of the Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra. He is also head of the Macromolecular, Colloids and Photochemistry Group, Coimbra Chemical Center (in collaboration with the Multicomponent Systems lab, a part of that group). He has published 14 book chapters, 2 books and 200 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. His scientific interests are vast and include chemometrics, pharmaceutical technology, molecular modeling/simulation and data science.
