João Lavinha, PhD

João Lavinha (born in Sintra, 1949) retired in 2019 from Head of the Research & Development Unit, Human Genetics Department, National Institute of Health Ricardo Jorge (INSA), Lisboa, Portugal. He has held other positions at INSA over the years, e.g., Head, Centre for Human Genetics (2005-2008); Director-general (2000-2004); and Head, Molecular Biology Laboratory, Human Genetics Department (1993-2000). In parallel with a 4-decade long career as a health laboratory researcher, he gained a significant expertise in the ethical review of biomedical research (including but not limited to animal and pathogen experimentation) through his membership in several institutional ethics committees, namely at INSA (2005-2012; 2016-…), Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (2008-…) and the Portuguese Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Institute (2020-…). In addition, he served as a member of the Portuguese Clinical Research Ethics Review Board (2016-2020) which is responsible for the ethical implementation of the EU directives on human clinical trials.