Chromatin dynamics in Arbidopsis development: a live cell imaging approach

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology

Insights into the epidemiology of drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae and closely-related streptococci in the era of conjugate vaccines

In Portugal, the introduction of the seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) has led to significant changes in the population structure of Streptococcus pneumoniae. However, the levels of antimicrobial resistance have not decreased and have been a matter of concern. (...)

Improving downstream processing for viral vectors and viral vaccines

Viral vectors are playing an increasingly important role in the vaccine and gene therapy elds. The broad spectrum of potential applications, together with expanding medical markets, drives the e orts to improve the production processes for viral vaccines and viral vectors. Developing countries, in particular, are becoming the main vaccine market. It is thus critical to decrease the cost per dose, which is only achievable by improving the production process. In particular advances in the upstream processing have substantially increased bioreactor yields, shifting the bioprocess bottlenecks towards the downstream processing. The work presented in this thesis aimed to develop new processes for adenoviruses puri cation. The use of state-of-the-art technology combined with innovative continuous processes contributed to build robust and cost-e ective strategies for puri cation of complex biopharmaceuticals.(...)

How to design and develop There App: A mobile app focused on live video streaming, promoting new social interactions

This work project aims to demonstrate how to design and develop an innovative concept of video streaming app. The project combines technology push and market pull theories into developing a product that is more suitable for the customer needs, with the particularity that there is no other way of seeing any place in the world, live and ondemand. An analysis on the bigger influencers in terms of design-thinking and new product development, as Tim Brown or Paul Trott, lead to a better understanding on how There App should evolve, keeping in mind the customer desires and technical features.

Optimization of production of anti-cancer vaccines based on dendritic cells

Cancer remains as one of the top killing diseases in first world countries. It’s not a single, but a set of various diseases for which different treatment approaches have been taken over the years. Cancer immunotherapy comes as a “new” breath on cancer treatment, taking use of the patients’ immune system to induce anti-cancer responses. Dendritic Cell (DC) vaccines use the extraordinary capacity of DCs’ antigen presentation so that specific T cell responses may be generated against cancer. In this work, we report the ex vivo generation of DCs from precursors isolated from clinical-grade cryopreserved umbilical cord blood (UCB) samples. After the thawing protocol for cryopreserved samples was optimized, the generation of DCs from CD14+ monocytes, i.e., moDCs, or CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), i.e, CD34-derived DCs, was followed and their phenotype and function evaluated. Functional testing included the ability to respond to maturation stimuli (including enzymatic removal of surface sialic acids), Ovalbumin-FITC endocytic capacity, cytokine secretion and T cell priming ability. In order to evaluate the feasibility of using DCs derived from UCB precursors to induce immune responses, they were compared to peripheral blood (PB) moDCs. We observed an increased endocytosis capacity after moDCs were differentiated from monocyte precursors, but almost 10-fold lower than that of PB moDCs. Maturation markers were absent, low levels of inflammatory cytokines were seen and T cell stimulatory capacity was reduced. Sialidase enzymatic treatment was able to mature these cells, diminishing endocytosis and promoting higher T cell stimulation. CD34-derived DCs showed higher capacity for both maturation and endocytic capacity than moDCs. Although much more information was acquired from moDCs than from CD34-derived DCs, we conclude the last as probably the best suited for generating an immune response against cancer, but of course much more research has to be performed.

Enhancing fan experience during live sports broadcasts through second screen applications

When sports fans attend live sports events, they usually engage in social experiences with friends, family members and other fans at the venue sharing the same affiliation. However, fans watching the same event through a live television broadcast end up not feeling so emotionally connected with the athletes and other fans as they would if they were watching it live, together with thousands of other fans. With this in mind, we seek to create mobile applications that deliver engaging social experiences involving remote fans watching live broadcasted sports events. Taking into account the growing use of mobile devices when watching TV broadcasts, these mobile applications explore the second screen concept, which allows users to interact with content that complements the TV broadcast. Within this context, we present a set of second screen application prototypes developed to test our concepts, the corresponding user studies and results, as well as suggestions on how to apply the prototypes’ concepts not only in different sports, but also during TV shows and electronic sports. Finally, we also present the challenges we faced and the guidelines we followed during the development and evaluation phases, which may give a considerable contribution to the development of future second screen applications for live broadcasted events.