João Pinheiro

About João

João originates from a small city called Elvas, located in Portugal, near the Spanish border. At the age of 14, he and his mom moved to Lisbon where he had access to more opportunities. João always wanted to study in a field that would be a mix-up of biology, mathematics, and physics-related fields. But he also really enjoyed the hands-on experience in the lab and the translation to the industry side of things. So, he ended up picking Biological Engineering for his integrated master's, which is in between Biomedical and Chemical Engineering. 

During his studies, he did his first internship at iBB, where he learned about the topic, periodontal tissue regeneration. Afterward, he did his master's internship in Lund, Sweden. There he worked in Paul’s Bourgine lab, studying mitochondrial transfer from mesenchymal stem cells to hematopoietic stem cells. Here he also worked with a 3D-printed perfusion bioreactor to perform his studies and gain a lot of experience in cell culturing, flow cytometry, immunostaining, and other techniques.  

He applied to the CHANGE consortium, specifically to the LifeTec Group PhD position as he would work on developing a disease model of OA to study its progression and repair using the osteochondral platform, developed by the company.