M. V. D. Soares

Maria Soares graduated in Biochemistry at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Coimbra University in 1994. She obtained her MsC in Immunology in 1997, at Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, University of Porto Medical School. The research project project for the MsC focused was undertaken at the Department of Clinical Immunology of Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University College London. She then obtained her PhD in Immunology in 2002 from UCL, London, under the supervision of Prof Arne Akbar. Her studies focused on the role of apoptosis and replicative senescence in the control of viral infections. After completing the PhD she pursued her research career with 2 post-docs, the first at UCL London and the second at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular, University of Lisbon Medical School. During this period she supervised one PhD student and obtained funding in competetive calls. In 2007 she joined the flow cytometry unit at the IMM combining research activities and user support. In 2008 she became head of the Flow Cytometry Core Facility at the same institution. Since January 2014 she is a principal investigator at the Laboratoy of João Lacerda at the IMM where she is pursuing studies on immune reconstitution following allogeneic stem cell transplantation, with a particular focus on the understanding of chronic Graft versus Host Disease and the development of Treg based cellular therapies to treat this pathology