Andreas Simm
Short bio- Studied biology and concentrated his research on a) protein glycation as a basic mechanism on ageing, b) cardiovascular ageing, c) biomarkers of ageing and d) lung aging and tumor formation in the elderly. He is Professor for Molecular Cardiovascular Surgery, the research director of the Department of Cardiac-Surgery of the Heart Centre of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), the director of the Centre for Medical Basic Research (ZMG), and the director of the Interdisciplinary Centre on Ageing Halle (IZAH). He is at the moment the President elect of the German Society for Gerontology and Geriatrics (DGGG), Vise President of the European Union for Vitality and Active Ageing (eVAA e.V.) and Chair of the Working Group „The Elderly Patient in Cardiac Surgery“ of the German Society for Thoracic, Heart and Vessel Surgery (DGTHG). He published more than 150 peer reviewed original papers.
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Affiliations
- Heart Centre of the University Hospital Halle (Saale), Germany
- Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
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Presentation title
"Biomarkers of tissue ageing and AGEs as modulators of ageing"
Andreas Simm, PhD
Delminda Neves
Short bio- Delminda Neves is graduated in Biochemistry by Faculty of Sciences of Universidade do Porto. At 2001, obtained a PhD degree at Faculty of Medicine of Universidade do Porto, where is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedicine. She is also researcher at IBMC/Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde - I3S of Universidade do Porto, in the Ageing and Stress group.
- Her research has been focused in the elucidation of the ageing mechanisms of the cardiovascular system and particularly in the study of the influence of nutritional pattern in the molecular modifications associated with the ageing process. Beyond chronological ageing she also dedicates to the study of health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome or inflammatory diseases that intervene in the regulation of mechanisms of cellular senescence and ageing of the tissues.
- Among her scientific publications, several original articles of studies conducted in experimental animals of disease and ageing and in human tissues, result of a collaboration with the Department of Urology of the Central Hospital of S. João – Porto, are included. She was guest editor of the book entitled “Anti-Ageing Nutrients” published at 2015 by Wiley Blackwell.
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Affiliations
- Department of Biomedicine - Unit of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Portugal
- Institute for Research and Innovation in Health - i3S, University of Porto, Portugal
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Presentation title
"The role of calorie restriction on sirtuins in ageing"
Delminda Neves, PhD
Elisa Marques
Short bio- Elisa Marques is currently Head of the Sports Sciences and Physical Education Department at the University Institute of Maia – ISMAI and integrated member of the Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development (CIDESD). She holds a B.Sc. in Sports Sciences and Physical Education and M.Sc. in Physical Activity and Health from Faculty of Sports – Porto University in Porto, Portugal.
- Elisa obtained her PhD also in Physical Activity and Health (2011) from Faculty of Sports (CIAFEL) – Porto University where she conducted randomized controlled trials on physiological aspects of exercise training, aiming to counteract the age-related changes in muscle and bone strength, physical fitness and body composition. During her postdoctoral fellowship (2014-2017) at the National Institute on Aging– National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, USA), she conducted several research projects integrating imaging techniques to explore the physiology of muscle, bone structure and the underlying epidemiologic associations in aging.
- Her current research focuses on understanding the muscle and bone loss phenomenon from a clinical perspective, particularly by implementing and managing exercise training programs in healthy and chronic disease patients (such as CKD and diabetes).
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Affiliations
- Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development (CIDESD), University Institute of Maia (ISMAI), Portugal.
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Presentation title
"Exercice and Ageing focusing the relation between cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle mass preservation and sarcopeny prevention."
Elisa Marques, PhD
Teresa Amaral
Short bio- Associated Professor at FCNAUP. PhD in Food and Nutritional Sciences. Member of UISPA - LAETA / INEGI. Nutritionist. Research interests are related to the study of determinants, screening and impact of nutritional and functional status dysfunction in adults and older adults.
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Presentation title
"Nutritional and functional status in the elderly, a picture of the Portuguese elderly population"
Teresa Amaral, PhD
José Pedro Castro
Short bio- José Pedro Castro received his PhD in Biomedicine from the Faculty of Medicine University of Porto. His PhD work in Almeida's lab was focused on proteostasis mechanisms during aging and oxidative stress. During that time, José Pedro Castro was awarded with a DAAD PhD Scholarship that allowed him to study the proteasomal and autophagy systems in Grune's Lab then in University of Jena, Germany.
- In 2010 he was awarded with the Young Investigator Award and in 2013 with the Early Career Research Award for his work on protein aggregates and cellular clearing mechanisms.
- After concluding his PhD, he joined Grune's Lab as a post-doc now in the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) in Berlin, where he studied the role of mitochondrial dynamics in adipogenesis during aging. Currently he is leading a project on transcriptome and metabolome signatures from aged fast and slow skeletal muscle fibers.
- In 2018, José Pedro Castro was awarded with the Max Kade DFG fellowship enabling him to join Gladyshev's Lab at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, where currently he is studying gene signatures of aging and age-related diseases such as cancer.
- Employing next generation sequencing (NGS), his main interest is to understand how the molecular causes of aging contribute to the development of age-related diseases.
- He is also interested in promoting young scientists education by (co-)supervising several internship, master and PhD students.
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Affiliations
- Gladyshev Lab, Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
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Presentation title
"Skeletal muscle ageing: from a transcriptome and a metabolome perspective"
José Pedro Castro, PhD
Liliana Matos
Short bio- L. Matos graduated in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto in 2005. She then moved to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, where she pursued her post-graduate studies: she obtained her MSc in Molecular Medicine and Oncology in October 2008 and her PhD degree in Metabolism, clinical and experimental in December 2015. In her PhD thesis, she describes a novel stress-induced premature senescence cellular model; demonstrates for the first time the requirement of unfolded protein response activation for the induction of senescence in non-tumoral cells; and presents new findings on the protective effect of resveratrol in cellular senescence by improving proteostasis. In addition to her scientific career, L. Matos has also academic responsibilities since 2006 as she lectures Cellular and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Porto and, since 2017, is responsible for the regency of two curricular units in the Faculty of Dental Medicine, University of Porto. As a specialist in the field of cellular ageing, L. Matos is also a regular lecturer at gerontology curricular units of MSc and PhD programs from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto.
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Affiliations
- Ageing and Stress Research Group, Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular - IBMC and Institute for Research and Innovation in Health - i3S, University of Porto, Portugal
- Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Portugal
- Faculty of Dental Medicine and Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal
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Presentation title
"The link of metals and cellular mechanisms of senescence"
Liliana Matos, PhD
Paula Ludovico
Short bio- Paula graduated in Biology at the University of Porto (1994) and did her Master thesis on Molecular Genetics at the University of Minho (1999). In 2002 concluded her PhD in Biological Sciences at University of Minho. Paula was a visiting scientist at the Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, USA and at the Department of Neurology, Miami University, Florida, USA. Since 2002, Paula is an Associate Professor at School of Medicine and a Principal Investigator at the Health and Life Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho. Paula was a pioneer on the study of regulated cell death in yeast and fungi and has been using yeast as a eukaryotic model to address important scientific questions on cellular and molecular biology. Particularly, she has been exploiting the yeast chronological aging model to address important questions on proteostasis control during cellular aging. Paula Ludovico is author or co-author of more than 70 publications in international Journals, 5 book chapters and participated as oral presenter/poster presenter in more than 70 International meetings related with the field. She has also been acting as referee for more than 25 international journals.
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Affiliations
- Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
- ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal
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Presentation title
"Energy restriction on yeast and proteostasis control"
Paula Ludovico, PhD
Tim Schulz
Short bio- Tim J. Schulz is head of the Department of Adipocyte Development and Nutrition at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Germany. He received his doctorate in biochemistry and nutritional sciences from the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany. He subsequently completed his post-doctoral training on BMPs and brown adipose tissue biology in the laboratory of Dr. Yu-Hua Tseng at Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School. His present research interests include the role of aging in regenerative decline and adipocyte formation within the tissues of the musculoskeletal system. Dr. Schulz has received stipends from the European Research Council (ERC) and is a member of the German Diabetes Center (DZD).
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Affiliations
- German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE), Germany
- German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Germany
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Presentation title
"Age-related changes in adipose tissue homeostasis"
Tim Schulz, PhD
Vítor Costa
Short bio- Vítor Costa obtained a Biochemistry degree at Universidade do Porto and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences at Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto (ICBAS, UP). He currently holds a position as Associate Professor at ICBAS-UP and is group leader at Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (i3S, UP). Using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as model organism, his research focuses on the role of bioactive sphingolipids in the regulation of signalling cascades governing mitochondrial function, redox homeostasis, autophagy and apoptosis, and how deregulation of these signalling networks impacts on aging and cell death in the context of a yeast model of Niemann Pick type C disease. Vítor Costa has published 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 2 book chapters, and he is member of the scientific committee of the Doctoral Programme in Molecular and Cell Biology and of the Master Degree in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology at ICBAS, member of the editorial board of Microbial Cell and vice-president of the Portuguese Biochemical Society.
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Affiliations
- Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde - i3S, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
- Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
- Departamento de Biologia Molecular, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
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Presentation title
"Mitochondrial function and lifespan in a yeast model"
