João F. Mano

João F. Mano is a Full Professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Portugal, with additional appointments as Invited Professor at the University of Lorraine (France), Visiting Professor at KAIST (South Korea), and Adjunct Professor at Ajou University (South Korea). He serves as Vice-Director of the CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials and leads the COMPASS Research Group, focusing on advanced biomaterials, regenerative medicine, and 3D bioprinting for biomedical applications.

• PhD in Chemistry (1996, Technical University of Lisbon)
• D.Sc. in Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine, and Stem Cells (2012, University of Minho)

His research spans bio-inspired materials, cell and tissue engineering, and nanomicro platforms for biomedicine, integrating polymer science, biomimetic approaches, and cell-microenvironment interactions to develop biomedical devices and disease models for drug screening.

The 15 most recent publications highlight innovations in 3D bioprinting (Advanced Materials, Biomaterials), hydrogels (Advanced Healthcare Materials), microenvironment engineering (Small), and multi-scale tissue constructs (Advanced Science). His work emphasizes personalized medicine, biofabrication, and smart biomaterials.

Scientific Honors include:

• ERC Advanced Grant (2015, 2020)
• European Academy of Sciences Fellow (FEurASc)
• Doctor Honoris Causa (University of Lorraine, 2019; University of Utrecht, 2022)
• George Winter Award (2020)
• FAIMBE Fellow (2022)

He has supervised 74+ MSc, 26 PhD, and 40+ post-doctoral fellows, co-founded METATISSUE and CELLULARIS Biomodels, and holds 12 patents (8 as senior inventor). His editorial roles include Materials Today Bio (Elsevier) and leadership in major EU research projects like TissueEng, REBORN, and O2CELLS.