Filipa concluded her Integrated Master’s Degree in Bioengineering at the University of Porto (Portugal) in 2018. She performed her MSc thesis project at i3S/INEB in Porto and the central aim was to engineer a 3D tumor microenvironment to study the crosstalk between cells undergoing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and vascular cells. A heterotypic 3D breast cancer model was established based on a vascularized porous scaffold combined with an epithelial cell-laden hydrogel. Following her graduation, she worked as a research fellow in Prof. João Mano Lab at the University of Aveiro (Portugal). Her work was focused on the development of spherically structured 3D pancreatic-stromal heterotypic tumor models for combinatorial drug screening.

In September 2020, Filipa joined MERLN as a Doctoral candidate. Her PhD project is part of a European project called JOINTPROMISE that aims to develop an automated, GMP-grade platform producing large, patterned and vascularized joint implants providing also a paradigm shift for generic automated manufacturing of organoid-based tissue implants. The main challenge to engineer osteochondral tissue is to mimic their complex structural organization and functionality. Filipa’s goal is to implement bioprinting approaches for the creation of a stable and transient chondral microtissues to be incorporated in the aimed implants.