Leonardo Ferreira, PhD – US Academic System

Harvard Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department

Born and raised in Coimbra, Portugal, I studied biochemistry at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. In the summer of 2011, I arrived in Cambridge, MA, to start my graduate studies in the Molecules, Cells, and Organisms (MCO) PhD program at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University.

During the last four years, my work in the laboratories of Jack Strominger and Chad Cowan at the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, has focused on understanding immunological tolerance using pregnancy as a model, as well as developing new tools to interrogate our immune system at the genetic level.

In a not so distant future, I envision that we will be able to use our capacity to engineer the human genome with high precision and efficiency to manipulate our immune system, enabling us to treat several devastating illnesses now labeled as “incurable”. I am highly committed to make that vision become a reality.

Inês Andrade – Music

Pianist and PhD Student of Musical Arts degree at Boston University

Portuguese pianist Inês Andrade is an active performer as a soloist and chamber musician, having presented recitals throughout Europe and in the United States. Recent engagements include performances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (New York), Boston Conservatory Theater, Centre Le Phénix (Switzerland), Centro Cultural de Belém (Portugal) and Alexander Girardi Hall (Italy). Ines has been hailed as “one of the best Portuguese pianists of her generation” and praised for her “excellent technique and elaborated touch” (Diário de Notícias), after her performance of Grieg Piano Concerto with the Lisbon Sinfonietta Orchestra. A passionate chamber musician, Inês is a prizewinner of the Portuguese Young Musicians Prize, in duo with violinist Tamila Kharambura. She is also the co-founder of the Virtuoso Soloists of New York, and the Duo Pianíssimo, which promotes Portuguese music around the world.Inês holds a Bachelor of Music with honors from the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal), and a Master’s degree from New York University. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Boston University, under the guidance of Pavel Nersessian, and is a Teaching Assistant at BU College of Fine Arts. Ines is the founder and artistic director of the Festival de Música da Bendada, a new youth music festival in the Portuguese northern town of Bendada. She was recently invited by the MPMP to record a CD with the piano works of Alfredo Keil, which will be released in November of 2016.

Miguel Coelho, PhD – Research in Biophysics of Aging

Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

I am a biochemist with an interest in aging and evolution. My field of expertise is cell biology and biophysics of aging and the mechanisms of damage segregation during cell division. I have also worked in ciliary biogenesis and telomere dynamics during meiosis. I am now working on experimental evolution of genetic instability in a yeast model of cancer at Harvard University, under the supervision of Andrew Murray. My goal is to understand the genetic roadmap of genetic instability.