Dr Bruno Sarmento is Principal Investigator and Professor of Drug Delivery at Institute of Research and Innovation in Health (i3S) – University of Porto, the most important research center on biomedicine in Portugal. He gained his PhD from the University of Porto (2007), in collaboration with Queen’s University, Canada, Copenhagen University, Denmark and University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, developing innovative polymer-based nanoformulations for oral delivery of insulin. Bruno Sarmento was appointed professor in 2008, and entered i3S as Group Leader in 2012. Since 2019 is member of the Board of Directors of i3S – University of Porto. His scientific research is focused on the development of drug delivery systems, with special attention on nanotechnology, and their application to the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. He is interested in engineering targeted nanomedicines by identifying novel biological targets, proposing new functional ligands and producing tailored nanoplatforms for the delivery of therapeutic molecules for managing cancer, infection and metabolic diseases.
He pioneered translatable nanofabrication approaches using different macro and microfluidics methodologies that allow for the encapsulation of small molecules, biomacromolecules and their functionalization with active ligand moieties to target biological receptors, considering cellular and molecular bioengineering concepts.
His research contributes with fundamental insights on nanocarriers used for drug delivery applications in order to understand their mechanism of transport at the tissue and cellular levels and on the advantages of nanosystems used for prevention, diagnostics, and therapy. In particular, he is committed to unravel the real value of “nano” for mucosal drug delivery; develop mucodiffusive, molecular bioengineered nanoparticles for the oral delivery of antidiabetic peptides; establish advanced multistage functionalized nanoparticles for diagnostic and treatment of colorectal cancer and glioblastoma; and develop nanotechnology-based platforms for prevent and treat infection diseases. He has also specialized in 3D in vitro cell-based models and organ-on-a-chip platforms, closely resembling the basic characteristics of healthy and injured tissues, with special emphasis on intestinal tissue engineering mucosa, pulmonary air-liquid interface and heterotypic multicellular tumor microtissues generated through high-throughput 3D modeling. These models allow to identify mechanisms of action for drugs and functional nanoparticles, ultimately correlate with in vivo extrapolation and validation.
His research is aimed at translating with the industry, having established several collaboration agreements with international companies and participated as an entrepreneur in the creation of spin-offs. His work has attracted funding of >25 million €, from public and private entities, and pharmaceutical and medical devices industries. Bruno Sarmento published more 500 papers (total citations of 21000; H-index 74) and was invited speaker in the most prestigious international scientific meetings. He has supervised 45 PhD students and 14 post-doctoral fellows, all of whom have shared their research at CRS annual meetings. Bruno Sarmento has enjoyed supporting CRS in various roles since he joined the Society in 2006, still as PhD student. This has included: Board member and vice-president of Spanish-Portugal CRS Local Chapter, Chair of the Nanomedicine and Nanoscale Drug Delivery Focus Group, Chair of the International Chapter Committee, CRS Board Liaison for Local Chapters, Associate Editor of Drug Delivery and Translational Research and editor of several Special Issues, Editorial Board of the Journal of Controlled Release, Vice Chair for Technical Programming of the 2021 Annual Meeting and regular attendant of Annual Meetings organized by CRS since 2006.
