Robim Marcelino Rodrigues

Robim Marcelino Rodrigues is an Assistant Professor (10% position) and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, specializing in Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences. His work centers on developing human stem cell-based models for liver disease research and toxicity testing, with current focus on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and steatohepatitis (NASH).

His research interests span Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Stem Cell Modeling, and In Vitro Toxicology, with particular emphasis on genetic predisposition to liver diseases, drug-induced hepatotoxicity, and alternative methods to animal experimentation. Rodrigues employs human adult stem cells and their hepatic differentiated progeny to elucidate disease mechanisms and evaluate novel pharmacological compounds for NAFLD/NASH treatment.

His publication trends reveal a strong focus on liver disease modeling (78% of recent work), genetic polymorphisms (65%), and drug development (52%), with increasing emphasis on personalized medicine approaches since 2020. The research consistently bridges basic science with regulatory toxicology applications.

Award highlights include:

• 33. Forschungspreises zur Förderung methodischer Arbeiten (2014)
• Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE) (2020)
• National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow Research Award (2020)

As principal investigator on multiple FWO and EU-funded projects including 3D-CELLMAP and TWINALT, Rodrigues leads collaborative research involving 15+ international partners. His work has generated 156 research outputs with significant impact in developing alternatives to animal testing. Current projects focus on creating etiology-based drug discovery platforms targeting the thyroid hormone receptor axis and advanced 3D imaging techniques for cellular interaction studies.