Past Projects
Non-invasive follow-up of urinary tract cancers
Funding: European Research Council (ERC- 2022-POC1)
Grant agreement Nº 101069405
DOI: 10.3030/101069405
Bladder cancer is the most common malignancy of the urinary tract with 573,000 new cases and 213,000 deaths in 2020 worldwide and affecting more men than women in a 4:1 ratio. Bladder cancer has the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient of all cancers, which is mainly attributed to the intensive follow-up procedures of patients after diagnostics and surgery. Follow-up is made recurring to extremely invasive and low-patient compliant tests.
ENSURE aims to validate the technological and business feasibility of the electronic nose technology developed in the ERC Starting Grant SCENT by establishing the proof-of-concept for the non-invasive follow-up of bladder cancer patients. To accomplish this, we will approach the project from both Technical and Business perspectives, with a perfect synergy between the research and business teams, and a close contact with clinical collaborators and stakeholders.
To learn more about this project, please consult our publications (open access):
Esteves, C, Roque, ACA. (2024). Short peptide and amino acid-based supramolecular ionogels and eutectogels. Chemistry- A European Journal. e 2400622. DOI: 10.1002/chem.202400622
Teixeira G.D.G., Esteves C., Moro A.J., Lima J.C, Barbosa A.J.M., Roque ACA. (2024). An odorant-binding protein based electrical sensor to detect volatile organic compounds. Sensors and Act. B:Chemical. 411, 135726. DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2024.135726
Oliveira AR, Costa HMA, Ramou E, Palma SICJ, Roque ACA* (2023). Effect of Polymer Hydrophobicity in the Performance of Hybrid Gel Gas Sensors for E-Noses, Sensors 23(7), 3531; Doi:10.3390/s23073531
Ramou E, Roque ACA* (2023). Textural landscapes of VOC-sensitive chiral liquid crystal-based materials. Applied Physics Reviews, 10(1), 011411. Doi: 10.1063/5.0136551
- Oliveira, A. R., Ramou, E., Palma, S. I. C. J., Esteves, C., Barbosa, A. & Roque, A. C. A. (2023). Impact of the cationic moiety of ionic liquids on chemoselective artificial olfaction. ACS Mater. Au, 3, 678-686.
Check also some interviews/articles to our group about the project:
Interview to the podcast “O Futuro do Futuro”
- Interview to the Antena 2 radio program “Ciência”
- Interview to the Antena 1 radio program “Entrevista Tarde”
- Interview to CNN
- Interview to RTP
- Interview to RTP3 Jornal das 12
- Article for this CORDIS website “Why can’t we replace sniffer dogs with electronic noses?”
Smart and Sustainable Packaging
Funding: FEDER
Grant agreement: POCI-01-0247-FEDER-047007; LISBOA-01-0247-FEDER-047007
The SMASUS – Smart and Sustainable Packaging project aims to develop intelligent, functional and sustainable plastic packaging for medicines and food supplements, using active and functional coating solutions, sensing for maintenance/conservation of its shelf-life and monitoring of the product’s status packed. It is intended to make the end user aware, not only for good storage of these products, but also to enhance the shelf-life of perishable products even when they are temporarily not under ideal storage conditions, which may not effectively imply a significant degradation of product quality.
Copromotores:
NEUTROPLAST – INDÚSTRIA DE EMBALAGENS PLÁSTICAS, S.A
CENTI – CENTRO DE NANOTECNOLOGIA E MATERIAIS TÉCNICOS, FUNCIONAIS E INTELIGENTES
UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA – BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING LAB, UCIBIO
BioMaterials Molecular Dynamics
Funding: FCT I. P.
Grant agreement: 2022.15912.CPCA
PI: Arménio Barbosa
The BioM2D (BioMaterials Molecular Dynamics) project will study the assembly and molecular interactions of biomaterials for biopharmaceutical purification, on the Portuguese HPC infrastructure. Biopharmaceuticals have seen an exponential growth in the last decades as efficient therapeutics to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. The most expensive step in their production is their purification. Hence, new materials developed to be integrated in this process will make it more efficient and environmentally friendly.
RNCA, Fundação para Ciência e a Tecnologia, INCD.
Bio-inspired materials for fish spoilage control
Funding: FCT (PTDC/BII-BIO/28878/2017), ERDF-PT2020 Partnership Agreement (LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-028878)
The Sea2See project aims at identifying volatile organic compounds (VOCs) resulting from microbial growth in fish and its freshness
Eating is essential for our maintenance, but food can also be a source of illness. Foodborne diseases are an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, although the real cost on lives and economies is underestimated.
Fish is a healthy source of high-quality protein, naturally rich in valuable nutrients and its consumption is recommended for a healthy diet. Europe, in particular is Portugal, are large consumers, producers and importers of fresh and processed fish. However, fish is very prone to microbial spoilage, due to the high moisture content and pH.
Hybrid gels for rapid microbial detection
Funding: European Research Council
Grant agreement No 639123
SCENT: Hybrid gels for rapid microbial detection
This ERC Starting Grant has been awarded to Prof. Cecília Roque in 2014 to develop the urgently needed tools for rapid identification of bacterial infections.
Antimicrobial resistant bacteria are a global threat to the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections, causing over 25,000 deaths annually in the EU and costing over €1.5 billion a year. At present, microbial detection and identification takes between 24 and 36 hours, but for slow-growing bacteria, such as those causing tuberculosis, it can take more than a week.
Unusual human odours have been recognised as disease indicators since Hippocrates. We are developing bioinspired nose sensors as a fast and needle-free method of microbial detection. We are using new types of stimulus-responsive materials to detect and identify bacteria, in particular those most prevalent in human infections and associated with antibiotic resistance. The research will reduce detection times to a matter of seconds, and the research team hopes that by identifying bacterial infections so much sooner, lives will be saved, antibiotic abuse restrained, and the spread of infection better controlled.
To learn more about this project, please consult our publications (open access):
2022
- Moreira, IP, Esteves C, Palma SICJ, Ramou E, Carvalho ALM, Roque ACA. 2022. Synergy between silk fibroin and ionic liquids for active gas-sensing materials, Materials Today Bio. 15:100290.
- Esteves, C, Palma SICJ, Costa HMA, Alves C, Santos GMC, Ramou E, Carvalho AL, Alves V, Roque ACA. 2022. Tackling Humidity with Designer Ionic Liquid-Based Gas Sensing Soft Materials. Advanced Materials. 34:2107205.
- Ramou, E, Palma SICJ, Roque ACA. 2022. Nanoscale Events on Cyanobiphenyl-Based Self-Assembled Droplets Triggered by Gas Analytes. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. 14(4):6261-6273.
Conference papers:
- Palma, SICJ, Frazao J, Alves R, Costa HMA, Alves C, Gamboa H, Silveira M, Roque ACA. 2022. Learning to see VOCs with Liquid Crystal Droplets. 2022. IEEE International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose (ISOEN): 1–4.
- Esteves, C, Palma S, Costa H, Alves C, Santos G, Ramou E, Roque AC. 2022. VOC Sensing in Humid and Dry Environments. 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose (ISOEN): 1–3.
- Oliveira, A, Ramou E, Teixeira G, Palma S, Roque A. 2022. Incorporation of VOC-Selective Peptides in Gas Sensing Materials. Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies: 25–34.
- Alves, R, Rodrigues J, Ramou E, Palma S, Roque A, Gamboa H. 2022. Classification of Volatile Compounds with Morphological Analysis of e-nose Response. Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – BIOSIGNALS: 31–39.
2021
- Gonçalves, WB, Cervantes EP, Pádua ACCS, Santos G, Palma SICJ, Li RWC, Roque ACA, Gruber J. 2021. Ionogels Based on a Single Ionic Liquid for Electronic Nose Application, Chemosensors. 9(201).
- Frazão, J, Palma SICJ, Costa HMA, Alves C, Roque ACA, Silveira M. 2021. Optical Gas Sensing with Liquid Crystal Droplets and Convolutional Neural Networks. Sensors. 21(8):2854.
- Ramou, E, Rebordao G, Palma SICJ, Roque ACA. 2021. Stable and Oriented Liquid Crystal Droplets Stabilized by Imidazolium Ionic Liquids. MOLECULES. 26(19):6044.
Conference papers:
- Moreira, IP, Sato L, Alves C, Palma S, Roque AC. 2021. Fish Gelatin-based Films for Gas Sensing. Proceedings of BIODEVICES 2021 – 14th International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices; Part of the 14th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2021.: 32–39.
2020
- Rebordão, G, Palma SICJ, Roque ACA. 2020. Microfluidics in Gas Sensing and Artificial Olfaction. Sensors . 20(20):5742.
- Rodrigues, R, Palma SICJ, Correia VJ, Padrao I, Pais J, Banza M, Alves C, Deuermeier J, Martins C, Costa HMA, Ramou E, Silva Pereira C, Roque ACA. 2020. Sustainable plant polyesters as substrates for optical gas sensors. Materials Today Bio. 8:100083
- Esteves, C, Ramou E, Porteira ARP, Barbosa AJM, Roque ACA. 2020. Seeing the Unseen: The Role of Liquid Crystals in Gas‐Sensing Technologies. Advanced Optical Materials. 1902117:1-29.
2019
- Esteves C, Santos GMC, Alves C, Palma S, Porteira AR, Filho J, Costa HMA, Alves VD, Faustino BMM, Ferreira I, Gamboa H, Roque ACA. 2019. Effect of film thickness in gelatin hybrid gels for artificial olfaction. Materials Today Bio. 1.
- Maugeri, G, Lychko I, Sobral R, Roque ACA. 2019. Identification and Antibiotic-Susceptibility Profiling of Infectious Bacterial Agents: A Review of Current and FutureTrends. Biotechnology Journal. 14(1700750).
Conference papers:
- Palma, SICJ, Esteves C, Pádua AC, Alves CM, Santos GMC, Costa HMA, Dionisio M, Gamboa H, Gruber J, Roque ACA. 2019. Enhanced gas sensing with soft functional materials, May 2019. ISOEN 2019 – 18th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose, Proceedings. , Fukuoka, Japan: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
- Roque, ACA, Fred A, Gamboa H. 2019. Foreword, January 2019. BIODEVICES 2019 – 12th International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices, Proceedings; Part of 12th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2019.
- Pádua, AC, Gruber J, Gamboa H, Roque ACA. 2019. Impact of Sensing Film’s Production Method on Classification Accuracy by Electronic Nose. Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – Volume 1: BIODEVICES. Prague, Czech Republic.
- Santos, G, Alves C, Pádua AC, Palma S, Gamboa H, Roque ACA. 2019. An Optimized E-nose for Efficient Volatile Sensing and Discrimination. Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – Volume 1: BIODEVICE, Prague, Czech Republic.
2018
- Barbosa, AJM, Oliveira AR, Roque ACA. 2018. Protein- and Peptide-Based Biosensors in Artificial Olfaction. Trends in Biotechnology. 36(12):1244-1258.
- Semeano, ATS, Maffei DF, Palma S, Li RWC, Franco BDGM, Roque ACA, Gruber J. 2018. Tilapia fish microbial spoilage monitored by a single optical gas sensor. Food Control. 89:72-76.
- Palma, S, Traguedo AP, Porteira AR, Frias MJ, Gamboa H, Roque ACA. 2018. Machine learning for the meta-analyses of microbial pathogens’ volatile signatures. Scientific Reports. 8:3360.
Conference papers:
- Pádua, AC, Osório D, Rodrigues J, Santos G, Porteira AR, Palma S, Roque ACA, Gamboa H. 2018. Scalable and Easy-to-use System Architecture for Electronic Noses. In Proceedings of the 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies. 179-186.
- Pádua, AC, Palma S, Gruber J, Gamboa H, Roque ACA. 2018. Design and Evolution of an Opto-electronic Device for VOCs Detection. Proceedings of the 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies:48-55.
2017
- Hussain, A, Semeano ATS, Palma S, Pina AS, Almeida J, Medrado BF, Pádua AC, Carvalho AL, Dionísio M, Li RWC, Gamboa H, Ulijn RV, Gruber J, Roque ACA. 2017. Tunable Gas Sensing Gels by Cooperative Assembly. Advanced Functional Materials. 1700803:1–9.
Aug 2018-July 2021 – Project AccuseD-renAl Cell Carcinoma Detection Renal Cancer detection: a translational metabolomics research based on Volatile Organic Compounds fingerprinting (PTDC/SAU-SER/30388/2017), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal. Partners: Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Porto (Coordinator), IPO Porto.
July 2014-June 2017 – Project CHImerASE – Integrated Platform for de novo Design and Development of a Chimeric Enzyme for high-value chemicals, funded by European Commission FP7, ERA-IB call, Portuguese project leader. Partners: BASF (Germany), ACIB (Austria), Heinrich-Heine Universitat Dusseldorf (Germany)
March 2012-Sept 2015 – Project Viral Capture and Purification System: Smart macroporous structures for the affinity purification of retroviral particles (PTDC/EBB-BIO/118317/2010) funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal.
Jan 2010 – Sept 2013 – Project Metallo Beta-hairpins: in search of new recyclable catalysts for greener chemistry (PTDC/QUI-QUI/105504/2008), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal. Partners: ITQB-NOVA.
Jan 2010 – Dec 2012 – Project Enhancement of oxygen transport by functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (FMP) in non-Newtonian highly viscous microbial fermentations for biopolymer production: theoretical foundations and technological feasibility (PTDC/EBB-EBI/103761/2008), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal. Partners: iBET, PT.
Jan 2010 – Aug 2013 – Project Development of novel gelatine-based drug delivery systems using supercritical fluid technology (PTDC/EQU-EQU/104552/2008), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal. Partners: ITQB-NOVA & iBET.
Jan 2010-Dec 2013 – Project Innovative strategies for the purification of biopharmaceuticals: Magnetic Nanoparticles applied to High-Gradient-Magnetic-Separation and Aqueous-Two-Phase-Systems (PTDC/EBB-BIO/098961/2008), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal.
Feb 2010-Jan 2014 – Project Engineered biomimetics for large-scale enrichment of phosphoproteins (PTDC/EBB-BIO/102163/2008), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal.
Sept 2007-Aug 2011 – Project Chemical strategies for high-throughput proteomics: A rationally designed Affinity Tag-Receptor as a new approach for the production, purification and immobilization of recombinant proteins (PTDC/BIO/65383/2006), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal.
Oct 2004 – July 2005 – Project POCTI/BIO/45296/2002 “Design of Stabilizing Affinity Molecular Probes: A Rational Approach to Assess and Enhance Protein Stability”. PI – Ângela Taipa (IST, PT)
Oct 1999 – Dec 2003 – Project POCTI/BIO/36199/00 “Affinity ligands for Immunoglobulins”. PI – Ângela Taipa (IST, PT)