Mariana Raquel Antunes Colaço (7B12-FA29-40B1)

Curriculum Vitae

Mariana Raquel Antunes Colaço

Mariana Raquel Antunes Colaço completed in 2016 the Bachelor Degree in Biochemistry (University of Coimbra, Faculty of Science and Technology), and the Master Degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in 2018 with a dissertation entitled "Development of nanosized glucan particles with immunostimulatory function as a delivery system for curcumin" (University of Coimbra, Faculty of Pharmacy). Since the completion of her MsD (2018), Mariana Colaço has published 3 articles as first author and 5 articles as co-author. She participated as a Master Student Fellow in 2 projects: an international PROSAFE project (GoNanoBioMat), focused on addressing the issues of lack of regulations regarding the application of nanobiomaterials in pharmaceutical products and a project for the development of a therapeutic vaccine against chronic hepatitis B using glucan based adjuvant nanocarriers. Currently, she is a PhD student in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Pharmaceutical Technology) in Faculty of Pharmacy (University of Coimbra) working on the project: "Designing cationic polymer-DNA complexes for nasal immunization against SARS-CoV-2". In her professional activities, she interacted with 15 collaborators/ co-authorship of scientific papers. Her main research interests are in the field of nanotechnology and immunology. Detailed technical expertise includes: production of polymeric nanoparticles, nanoparticles loading with model proteins or DNA plasmids, size and zeta potential measurements using Zeta Sizer Nano (Malvern Instruments, Ldt) or Delsa¿Nano C particle analyzer (Beckman Coulter), SEM, TEM, purification and quantification of natural polymers (chitosan and glucan), protein content determination, cell line culture (e.g. RAW 264.7, HepG2 and A549) and primary cell culture (e.g. human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, mice spleen cells, generation of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells), cell viability assays (MTT, trypan blue and resazurin), cell stimulation studies, cell uptake studies (confocal microscopy and flow cytometry), cell transfection with DNA plasmids, immunotoxicity studies (ROS generation, NO generation, cytokine production), hemocompatibility studies (hemolysis, platelet aggregation and coagulation time assays), ELISA assays, mice manipulation, euthanasia and post mortem tissue dissection, drug administration, blood collection and mucosal fluids collection. In her curriculum Ciência Vitae the most frequent terms in the context of scientific and technological output are: Polymeric; nanoparticles; curcumin; glucan; particle adjuvants; hemocompatibility; immunotoxicity; anti-inflammatory; therapeutic; safe-by-design; in vitro; immune response.

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Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Mariana Raquel Antunes Colaço

Citation names

Colaço, Mariana
Colaço, M.

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: 7B12-FA29-40B1
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5147-7226

Email addresses

mariana.colaco@cnc.uc.pt (Professional)

Addresses

Faculdade de Farmácia, Polo III das Ciencias da Saude, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000-548, Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal (Professional)

Knowledge fields

Medical and Health Sciences - Medical Biotechnology - Biomaterials
Medical and Health Sciences - Medical Biotechnology - Technologies Involving the Manipulation of Cells, Tissues, Organs or the Whole Organism
Medical and Health Sciences - Basic Medicine - Immunology
Medical and Health Sciences - Basic Medicine - Toxicology
Medical and Health Sciences - Health Sciences - Infectious Diseases
Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Virology

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening	Peer-review
English	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)
Spanish; Castilian	Elementary (A2)	Intermediate (B1)	Elementary (A2)	Elementary (A2)	Elementary (A2)
French	Elementary (A2)	Intermediate (B1)	Elementary (A2)	Elementary (A2)	Elementary (A2)
Portuguese (Mother tongue)

Education

	Degree	Classification
2019/10 - 2024 Ongoing	Ciências Farmacêuticas (Doutoramento) Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal
2023/03/07 - 2023/03/08 Concluded	Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting - From Basic Concepts to Artificial Intelligence applied to Data Analysis (Outros) CNC.IBILI, Portugal Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
2020/11/09 - 2020/11/20 Concluded	IV Modular Training in Laboratory Animal Science Function A + Special Skills (Curso médio) Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Neurociências e Biologia Celular, Portugal Coimbra Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research, Portugal
2020/11/05 - 2020/11/06 Concluded	Training Course on Systems Biology of Vaccinology (Outros) Università degli Studi di Siena, Italy
2020/02/17 - 2020/02/21 Concluded	Connecting Researchers with the Society - PDBEB Course (Outros) Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Neurociências e Biologia Celular, Portugal	17/20
2020/01/06 - 2020/01/17 Concluded	Biostatistics Course (Outros) Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Medicina, Portugal	17/20
2019/11/25 - 2019/11/29 Concluded	Curso de Regulação Celular e Sinalização (Outros) Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Medicina, Portugal	19/20
2017/08 - 2018/07 Concluded	Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English - Council of Europe Level C1 (Outros) Cambridge School Coimbra, Portugal	C1
2018 Concluded	Biotecnologia Farmacêutica (Mestrado) Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal "Development of Nanosized Glucan Particles with Immunostimulatory Function as a Delivery System for Curcumin" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	17.55
2016 Concluded	Bioquímica (Licenciatura) Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia, Portugal "Síntese e caracterização de nanopartículas de quitosano – sulfato de alumínio com o propósito de atuar como sistema de entrega de antigénios" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	16

Affiliation

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2019/11/20 - 2020/11/19	Researcher (Research)	Centro de Inovação em Biomedicina e Biotecnologia (CIBB), Portugal
	Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal
2018/12/06 - 2019/06/30	Researcher (Research)	CNC.IBILI, Portugal
	Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal
2016/09/01 - 2018/12/06	Research Trainee (Research)	CNC.IBILI, Portugal
	Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal
2016/08/01 - 2016/08/31	Research Trainee (Research)	Instituto Português de Oncologia de Coimbra Francisco Gentil EPE, Portugal

2015/07/08 - 2015/07/17	Research Trainee (Research)	Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia, Portugal

Others

	Category Host institution	Employer
2020/12/01 - Current	PhD Student working on the project: "Designing cationic polymer-DNA complexes for nasal immunization against SARS-CoV-2"	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
	Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal

Projects

Grant

	Designation	Funders
2019/11/20 - 2021	Hepatitis B therapeutic vaccine: Production of glucan-based nanoparticles towards selective delivery hepatitis B antigens to immune cells to induce antiviral activity PTDC/MEC-GAS/30331/2017 Research Fellow	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Concluded
2017/04/01 - 2019/06/30	Polymeric NanoBioMaterials for drug delivery: developing and implementation of safe-by-design concept enabling safe healthcare solutions ProSafe/0001/2016 Research Fellow	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Concluded

Other

	Designation	Funders
2021/12/01 - 2022/12/01	Vacina Intranasal genética contra o COVID: estudos de imunização em murganhos 13824 Researcher Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal	Gilead Sciences Lda Concluded

Outputs

Publications

Book chapter	Colaço, Mariana; Panão Costa, João; Borges, Olga. "Glucan Particles: Choosing the Appropriate Size to Use as a Vaccine Adjuvant". In Methods in Molecular Biology, 269-280. Springer US, 2021. Published • 10.1007/978-1-0716-1892-9_13
Conference poster	Melo, Alexandra; Colaço, Mariana; Costa, João Panão; Borges, Olga. "The Immunomodulatory Effect of the Roots of Withania Somnifera encapsulated into ß-Glucan Particles". Paper presented in X Congresso Iberoamericano de Ciências Farmacêuticas, 2023. Félix, Paulo; Costa, João Panão; Colaço, Mariana; Borges, Olga. "The immunomodulatory potential of a dual TLR agonist strategy as an oral vaccine adjuvant for SARS-CoV-2". Paper presented in iMED Conference 15.0, 2023. Félix, Paulo; Costa, João Panão; Colaço, Mariana; Borges, Olga. "The immunomodulatory potential of a dual TLR agonist strategy as a vaccine adjuvant". Paper presented in 4th SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting - Delivering Science Bridging Opportunities, 2023. Colaço, Mariana; Costa, João Panão; Jesus, Sandra; Borges, Olga. "The contamination of nanoparticles with endotoxins does not always influence immunotoxicity studies: chitosan as a case study". Paper presented in 4th SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting - Delivering Science Bridging Opportunities, 2023. Colaço, Mariana; Roquito, Tiago; Panão Costa, João; Jesus, Sandra; Borges, Olga. "The influence of curcumin-encapsulated glucan nanoparticles on oxidative stress in liver cells". Paper presented in XIV Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, Tenerife, January 26-28th, 2022. Panão Costa, João; Colaço, Mariana; Jesus, Sandra; Borges, Olga. "Immunotoxicological properties of yeast-derived glucan particles". Paper presented in XIV Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, Tenerife, January 26-28th, 2022. Jesus, Sandra; Duarte, Henrique; Panão Costa, João; Colaço, Mariana; Borges, Olga. "Inulin-PCL nanoparticles as an adjuvant delivery system for highly purified recombinant antigens". Paper presented in XIV Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, Tenerife, January 26-28th, 2022. Jesus, Sandra; Colaço, Mariana; Panão Costa, João; Borges, Olga. "Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) vaccine: Shedding light on the immunotoxicity of chitosan as a nano-delivery system". Paper presented in CIBB meeting 2019, 2019. Araújo, Raquel; Colaço, Mariana; Costa, João Panão; Bernardi, Natalia; Jesus, Sandra; Borges, Olga. "Nanocapsules containing sucupira oil: cytotoxicity and hemolysis evaluation". Paper presented in 22nd International Symposium on Microencapsulation, 2019. 10.19146/pibic-2015-37834 Jesus, Sandra; Marques, Ana Patrícia; Duarte, Alana; Soares, Edna; Colaço, Mariana; Panão Costa, João; Schmutz, Mélanie; et al. "Safe-by-design of chitosan nanoparticles: the role of immunotoxicological properties". Paper presented in SPI XLV Annual Meeting, 2019. Colaço, Mariana; Marques, Ana Patrícia; Jesus, Sandra; Borges, Olga. "Nanosized Glucan Particles as a Delivery System for Curcumin: the effect of size on immunotoxicity". Paper presented in 2nd SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting, 2019. Duarte, Alana; Marques, Ana Patrícia; Jesus, Sandra; Colaço, Mariana; Costa, João Panão; Soares, Edna; Borges, Olga. "Assessment of immunotoxicological features of chitosan nanoparticles". Paper presented in 2nd SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting, 2019. Colaço, Mariana; Marques, Ana Patrícia; Borges, Olga. "Immunotoxicity of Glucan nanoparticles: the size matters". Paper presented in SLAP 2018 (XVI Latin-American Polymers symposium) XIV Iberoamerican polymer congress, 2018. Colaço, Mariana; Jesus, Sandra; Marques, Ana Patrícia; Soares, Edna; Duarte, Alana; Borges, Olga. "Nanosized glucan particles as a delivery system for curcumin". Paper presented in XII Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, 2018. Colaço, Mariana; Marques, Ana Patrícia; Duarte, Alana; Jesus, Sandra; Soares, Edna; Borges, Olga. "Glucan nanoparticle immunotoxicity: size matters". Paper presented in Sociedade Portuguesa de Imunologia XLIV Annual Meeting, 2018. Duarte, Alana; Marques, Ana Patrícia; Jesus, Sandra; Colaço, Mariana; Borges, Olga. "Chitosan nanoparticles as drug delivery systems: focus on immunotoxicological features". Paper presented in XII Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, 2018. Duarte, Alana; Marques, Ana Patrícia; Jesus, Sandra; Colaço, Mariana; Borges, Olga. "Evaluation of chitosan nanoparticles immunotoxicity". Paper presented in Sociedade Portuguesa de Imunologia XLIV Annual Meeting, 2018.
Journal article	Costa, João Panão; Jesus, Sandra; Colaço, M.; Duarte, Alana; Soares, Edna; Borges, Olga. "Endotoxin contamination of nanoparticle formulations: A concern in vaccine adjuvant mechanistic studies". Vaccine 41 23 (2023): 3481-3485. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.04.063. Open access • Published • 10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.04.063 Colaço, M.; Roquito, Tiago; Costa, João Panão; Cruz, Maria Teresa; Borges, Olga. "The Effect of Curcumin-Loaded Glucan Nanoparticles on Immune Cells: Size as a Critical Quality Attribute". Pharmaceutics 15 2 (2023): 623. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15020623. Open access • Published • 10.3390/pharmaceutics15020623 Jesus, Sandra; Bernardi, Natalia; da Silva, Jessica; Colaço, Mariana; Panão Costa, João; Fonte, Pedro; Borges, Olga. "Unravelling the Immunotoxicity of Polycaprolactone Nanoparticles—Effects of Polymer Molecular Weight, Hydrolysis, and Blends". Chemical Research in Toxicology 33 11 (2020): 2819-2833. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.0c00208. Published • 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.0c00208 Colaço, Mariana; Duarte, Alana; Zuzarte, Mónica; Costa, Benilde F.O.; Borges, Olga. "Airborne environmental fine particles induce intense inflammatory response regardless of the absence of heavy metal elements". Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 195 (2020): 110500. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.110500. Published • 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.110500 Colaço, Mariana; Marques, Ana P.; Jesus, Sandra; Duarte, Alana; Borges, Olga. "Safe-by-Design of Glucan Nanoparticles: Size Matters When Assessing the Immunotoxicity". Chemical Research in Toxicology (2020): http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.9b00467. Published • 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.9b00467 Jesus, Sandra; Marques, Ana Patrícia; Duarte, Alana; Soares, Edna; Costa, João Panão; Colaço, Mariana; Schmutz, Mélanie; et al. "Chitosan Nanoparticles: Shedding Light on Immunotoxicity and Hemocompatibility". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 8 100 (2020): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00100. Published • 10.3389/fbioe.2020.00100 Silva, Jessica; Jesus, Sandra; Benardi, Natália; Colaço, Mariana; Borges, Olga. "Poly(D,L-Lactic Acid) Nanoparticle Size Reduction Increases its Immunotoxicity". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (2019): https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2019.00137. Open access • Published Lebre, F.; Bento, D.; Ribeiro, J.; Colaço, M.; Borchard, G.; de Lima, M.C. Pedroso; Borges, O.. "Association of chitosan and aluminium as a new adjuvant strategy for improved vaccination". International Journal of Pharmaceutics 527 1-2 (2017): 103-114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2017.05.028. Published • 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2017.05.028
Thesis / Dissertation	Colaço, Mariana Raquel Antunes. "Development of nanosized glucan particles with immunostimulatory function as a delivery syistem for curcumin". Master, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10316/84534.

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2024/02/14	Hepatic-Targeted Dual Oral Vaccine Formulation for Chronic Hepatitis B: Amplifying Immune Efficacy with Glucan Particles	XV Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, Lisbon, 2024 Spanish Portuguese Local Chapter Controlled Release Society (Portugal)
2024/02/14	Intranasal DNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2	XV Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, Lisbon, 2024 Spanish Portuguese Local Chapter Controlled Release Society (Portugal)
2023/10/26	Toll-like Receptor Ligands as Oral Vaccine Adjuvants: Immunomodulatory Effects against SARS-CoV-2	X Congresso Iberoamericano de Ciências Farmacêuticas (Coimbra, Portugal)
2023/09/18	Immunomodulatory properties of glucan-based nanoparticles: the size matters	Conference on Tools and Tests for Safer-by-Design Nanomaterials International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (Braga, Portugal)
2023/02/06	ß-glucan and TLR 7/8 agonist combination as a new adjuvant against chronic hepatitis B	4th SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting - Delivering Science Bridging Opportunities Spanish Portuguese Local Chapter Controlled Release Society (Porto, Portugal)
2022/09/09	Polysaccharide-based nanocarriers as vaccine adjuvants – chitosan and glucan contribution for improved hepatitis B vaccine efficacy	5th International EPNOE Junior Scientist Meeting (Aveiro, Portugal)
2022/02/10	The Influence of Curcumin-encapsulated Glucan Nanoparticles on Hepatic Cells and Immune Cells: Oxidative Stress and Immunomodulatory Properties	SPF Meeting 2022 Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia (Porto, Portugal)
2022/02/10	Immunotoxicological properties of yeast-derived glucan particles	SPF Meeting 2022 Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia (Porto, Portugal)
2021/07/27	The immunostimulatory ability of glucan particles on human DCs: a promising plataform for the design of a chronic hepatitis b vaccine	Controlled Release Society Virtual Annual Meeting
2019/02/07	Curcumin-loaded Glucan Nanoparticles: Immunotoxicity Profile	SPF Meeting 2019 (Porto, Portugal)
2019/02/07	Imunotoxicological evaluation of chitosan nanoparticles	SPF Meeting 2019 (Porto, Portugal)

Supervision

	Thesis Title Role	Degree Subject (Type) Institution / Organization
2022/09/01 - 2023/10/01	The immunomodulatory effect of the roots of Withania Somnifera encapsulated into ß-glucan particles Co-supervisor	Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal
2020/09/01 - 2021/10/01	The impact of Curcumin-encapsulated Glucan Nanoparticles on hepatic cells and immune cells: oxidative stress and immunomodulatory properties Co-supervisor	Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal

Event participation

	Activity description Type of event	Event name Institution / Organization
2024/02/14 - 2024/02/16	Participation at XV Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, Lisbon, 2024 Conference	XV Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery Spanish Portuguese Local Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (SPLC-CRS), Spain
2023/02/06 - 2023/02/07	Participation at 4th SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting- Delivering Science Bridging Opportunities on February 6-7, 2023. Conference	4th SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting- Delivering Science Bridging Opportunities Spanish Portuguese Local Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (SPLC-CRS), Spain
2022/02/09 - 2022/02/11	Participation at 52ª Reunião da Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia, 40ª Reunião de Farmacologia Clínica e 21ª Reunião de Toxicologia. Conference	SPF Meeting 2022 Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia, Portugal
2022/01/26 - 2022/01/28	Participation at XIV Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery on January 26-28th, 2022. Conference	XIV Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery on January 26-28th, 2022 Spanish Portuguese Local Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (SPLC-CRS), Spain
2019/09/26 - 2019/09/26	Participation at "Gestão de Resíduos Hospitalares Perigosos – Triagem e Acondicionamento" seminar, organised by Ambiwaste/Ambipombal. Seminar	Gestão de Resíduos Hospitalares Perigosos – Triagem e Acondicionamento CNC.IBILI, Portugal
2019/02/27 - 2019/02/27	Workshop "Análise de partículas do nanómetro ao milímetro" Workshop	Análise de partículas do nanómetro ao milímetro
2019/02/06 - 2019/02/08	Participation at XLIX Reunião Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia, XXXVII Reunião Farmacologia Clínica, XVIII Reunião Toxicologia Meeting Meeting	SPF Meeting, 2019 Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal
2019/01 - 2019/01/23	Participation at 2nd SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting Meeting	2nd SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting
2018/01 - 2018/01	Participation at XII Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery Conference	XII Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery

Association member

	Society Organization name	Role
2021/01/01 - Current	Spanish Portuguese Local Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (SPLC-CRS)
2019/11/10 - 2020/12/08	Sociedade Portuguesa de Ciências em Animais de Laboratório (SPCAL)

Distinctions

Award

2020	FCT individual PhD studentship (2020.10043.BD) Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
2020	TRANSVAC2 Training School Studentship TRANSVAC: European Vaccine Initiative, Germany

Title

2021	Accreditation as Investigator for scientific experimentation involving animals (FELASA category B, certified by DGAV, Portugal) Direcção-Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária, Portugal