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João Conde

Professor Professor Catedrático
Principal Investigator

João Conde is a Full Professor of Precision Medicine & Oncogenomics (BioMedicine) at NOVA Medical School, Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. He holds a Habilitation (Agregação) in Biomedicine (2023), with a specialization in Precision Medicine and Oncogenomics. His expertise spans oncogenomics, nanomedicine and gene therapy, with a strong focus on precision medicine in oncology.

In 2013, he received his PhD in Biology with a specialization in NanoBiotechnology from the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and the Universidad de Zaragoza as part of the FP7 European Consortium NanoScieE+-NanoTruck for the development of multifunctional gold nanoparticles for gene silencing. Following that, he was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Harvard-MIT Division for Health Sciences and Technology, and Queen Mary University of London's School of Engineering and Materials Science.

From 2017 to 2019, he was a Junior Investigator at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular. In 2019, he won an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council (1.5M€) to build a genetic biobarcode to profile breast cancer heterogeneity. He is also a co-founder of the biotech company TargTex, Targeted Therapeutics for Glioblastoma Multiforme (Funding ~18M€, European Innovation Council Accelerator - 14M€). Since 2020, he is also a Senior Collaborator of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Consortium from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington. In 2023, he partnered with Vector Bioscience Cambridge to develop cancer therapies. From 2023 to 2025, was member of the Scientific Advisory Board of FCT: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. Since 2024, he has been on the Scientific Advisory board of Vector Bioscience Cambridge. From March 2024 to November 2025 he was the Vice Dean for Research at NOVA Medical School. In 2025, NOVA Medical School was awarded ~6.5M€ (FEDER-LISBOA2030 and Haddad Foundation) to build a preclinical-to-clinical hub and a medical innovation center with João Conde as one of the scientific coordinators.

The main aspects related to the recognition and diffusion of his early contributions are: more than 160 articles in journals of Cancer Therapy, Oncology, Nanotechnology/Materials Science and NanoMedicine (Nature, The Lancet, Nature Materials, The Lancet Oncology, Nature Nanotechnology, JAMA Oncology, Nature Reviews Materials, Nature Communications, The Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol, Nature Rev Methods Primers, PNAS, The Lancet Neurology, Nature Rev Bioengineering, The Lancet Public Health, Accounts of Chemical Research, The Lancet Child Adolesc Health, Progress in Materials Science, ACS Nano, Advanced Materials, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Science, Trends in Cancer, Trends in Biotechnology, Biomaterials, etc), more than 30 articles are as 1st author and nearly 70 articles as corresponding author and cited more than 24.000 times (h-index 63). Nearly 40 of them have been selected as cover pages for journals such as Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology (COVID-19 Special Issue), The Lancet, The Lancet Oncology, Nature Reviews Materials, The Lancet Public Health, ACS Nano, JAMA Oncology, JACC, Matter, Nano Letters, Adv. Functional Materials, Matter, Trends in Cancer, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, ACS Central Science, ACS Sensors, Biomaterials Science, ACS Applied Bio Mat, Adv. Healthcare Materials, Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry, and BioTechniques.

In addition, 12 international patents on nanomaterials-based platforms for cancer therapy and diagnosis were submitted and/or approved. He was also awarded several international awards, including the 2024, 2023 and 2022 World’s Top 2% Scientists list by Stanford University, the Nanomaterials 2020 Young Investigator Award, the 2021 Biomaterials Science Emerging Investigator, the Top 2% Most cited in Nanoscience/ Nanotechnology from PLOS Biology, the Wellcome Image Awards 2017, the Nano-Micro Letters Researcher Award, and the National Cancer Institute Image Award.

“Prodrug polymeric nanoconjugates encapsulating gold nanoparticles for enhanced X-Ray radiation therapy in breast cancer” H. Nosrati, F. Seidi, A. Hosseinmirzaei, N. Mousazadeh, A. Mohammadi, Mo. Ghaffarlou, H. Danafar, João Conde* and Ali Sharafi*. Advanced Healthcare Materials - Rising Star Issue (2021).

“Controlled delivery of gold nanoparticle-coupled miRNA therapeutics via an injectable self-healing hydrogel”. C.F.T. van der Ven, M.W. Tibbitt, João Conde, A. van Mil, J. Hjortnaes, P.A.F.M. Doevendans, J.P.G. Sluijter, E. Aikawa and Robert Langer. Nanoscale (2021) - Featured on COVER

“The global burden of adolescent and young adult cancer in 2019: An analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019”. João Conde & GBD Consortium. The Lancet Oncology (2021) - Featured on COVER

“Cancer Incidence, Mortality, Years of Life Lost, Years Lived with Disability, and Disability-Adjusted Life Years for 29 Cancer Groups from 2010 to 2019: A Systematic Analysis of Cancer Burden Globally, Nationally, and by Socio-Demographic Index for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019”. João Conde & GBD Consortium. JAMA Oncology (2021).

“Machine-readable Nanotechnology for future healthcare research”. Andzelika Lorenc, Bárbara B. Mendes, João Conniot, Diana P. Sousa, João Conde* and Tiago Rodrigues*. Matter (Cell Press) (2021).

“Global, regional, and national progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 for neonatal and child health: all-cause and cause-specific mortality findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019” GBD Consortium. The Lancet (2021).

“Facts and Figures on Materials Science and Nanotechnology Progress and Investment”. S. Talebian, T. Rodrigues, J. das Neves, B. Sarmento, R. Langer, João Conde*. ACS Nano (2021)

“Nanotechnology-based strategies to target and modulate the tumor microenvironment”. Barbara Mendes, João Conniot, Diana Sousa, João Conde*. Trends in Cancer (2021). Featured on COVER.

“Allosteric Antagonist Modulation of TRPV2 by Piperlongumine Impairs Glioblastoma Progression”. João Conde, R.A. Pumroy, C. Baker, T. Rodrigues, A. Guerreiro, B.B. Sousa, M.C. Marques, B.P. de Almeida, S. Lee, E.P. Leites, D. Picard, A. Samanta, S.H. Vaz, F. Sieglitz, M. Langini, M. Remke, R. Roque, T. Weiss, M. Weller, Y. Liu, S. Han, F. Corzana, V.A. Morais, C.C. Faria, T. Carvalho, P. Filippakopoulos, B. Snijder, N.L. Barbosa-Morais, V.Y. Moiseenkova-Bell, G.J.L. Bernardes. ACS Central Science (2021) Featured on COVER.

“Revisiting Gene Delivery to the Brain: Silencing and Editing” (2021 Biomaterials Science Emerging Investigators Issue). João Conniot, Sepehr Talebian, Susana Simões, Lino Ferreira*, João Conde*. Biomaterials Science (2020) Featured on COVER.

“Why Go NANO on COVID-19 pandemic?”. Sepehr Talebian and João Conde*. Matter (2020).

“Nanotechnology-based disinfectants and sensors for SARS-CoV-2” S. Talebian, G.G. Wallace, A. Schroeder, F. Stellacci and João Conde*. Nature Nanotechnology (2020) COVID-19 Special Issue.

“Localized Nanotheranostics: Recent developments in Cancer Nanomedicine”. R. Prasad, N.K. Jain, João Conde*, R. Srivastava. Materials Today Advances (2020)

“Above and beyond Cancer Therapy: translating biomaterials into clinics” João Conde* Trends in Cancer (2020).

“Local triple-combination therapy results in tumour regression and prevents recurrence in a colon cancer model”. João Conde*, N. Oliva, Y. Zhang and N. Artzi. Nature Materials (2016). Highlighted in Science Translational Medicine and Science Bulletin.

“Local microRNA delivery targets Palladin and prevents metastatic breast cancer”. A. Gilam, João Conde, D. Weissglas-Volkov, N. Oliva, N. Artzi, N. Shomron. Nature Communications (2016).

“Self-assembled RNA-triple-helix hydrogel scaffold for microRNA modulation in the tumour microenvironment”. João Conde*, N. Oliva, M. Atilano, H.S.  H.S. Song, N. Artzi. Nature Materials (2016). Highlighted in Science Translational Medicine and The Scientist.

“Implantable hydrogel embedded dark-gold nanoswitch as a theranostics probe to sense and overcome cancer multidrug resistance”. João Conde*, N. Oliva, N. Artzi. PNAS (2015). Highlighted in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

• 2021 - Nanomaterials 2020 Young Investigator Award, MDPI.

• 2021 - Top2% Most Cited Researchers in Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies, PLOS Biology.

• 2021 - 2021 Biomaterials Science Emerging Investigators, Royal Society of Chemistry.

• 2019 - ERC Starting Grant: ERC-StG-2019-848325, European Research Council, EU.

• 2018 - Junior Investigator: FCT Stimulus of Scientific Employment, (CEECIND/01688/2017) National Science Foundation, PT.

• 2017 - Wellcome Image Awards 2017: Wellcome Trust, UK.

• 2016 - Nano-Micro Letters Researcher Award, Nature Research Society.

• 2016 - National Cancer Institute Image award: Cancer close up, USA.

• 2013 - Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship for Career Development, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF).

• 2009 - PhD Fellowship - National Science Foundation - PhD Grant (FCT, SFRH/BD/ 62957/2009), PT.