Eng. Miguel Mata

Miguel initiated his academic journey with a BSc and MSc in Biological Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico. Throughout this period, Miguel developed a keen interest in the chemical side of biology, particularly in chemical biology.

During his BSc, Miguel interned at CQE IST working on novel antimicrobials based on natural organometallic products, resulting in his co-authorship of his inaugural paper. Progressing to his MSc, Miguel other drug development stages through an internship at Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown working on behavioral high-throughput drug screening and at iMed FFUL working on new reagents for cysteine bioconjugation. Concluding his MSc, Miguel relocated to Leiden University, The Netherlands for his thesis on the combinatorial discovery of covalent drugs, earning him the Prémio Jorge Dias de Deus for the best MSc thesis by AEIST.

Apart from teaching, Miguel actively engaged in student organizations such as NEBIST and NAPE. Additionally, he spent a summer Beijing, China for a summer school Tsinghua University. Currently, Miguel is pursuing a PhD in Drug Discovery/Medicinal Chemistry at Leiden University, focusing on the engineering of the drug discovery process.Beyond his research pursuits, Miguel actively engaged in teaching at IST. Serving as the Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Bioengineering (BSc, 2022) and Separation and Purification of Biological Products (MSc, 2021 and 2022), he received the Excellence in Teaching award for both courses.