During a visit of the Minho University delegation to the Medical School of USP and to the Polytechnic School (EP) of USP, the three institutions announced the jointed effort in the integration of researches in the area of reconstructive medicine and bioengineering. At the opening of the gathering, which occurred in the Congregation Room of FMUSP on May 6th, the president of the USP Agency of Nacional and International Academic Cooperation (AUCANI) Professor Raul Machado Neto, announced the creation of the Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Group (EMERE), composed by FMUSP and EPUSP researchers, which will act alongside the Investigation Institute in Biomaterials, Biodegradable and Biomimetic (i3B), of the Minho University (Portugal).

“The approximation with Poli (the Polytechnic School) is very important for the researches in regenerative medicine of FMUSP. And the Minho University has a very interesting project in the area of biomaterial and regenerative biomedicine. This institutional model will boast a scientific production of greater impact by promoting the interfaces of medical reconstructive engineering”, says the FMUSP director, professor Tarcisio Eloy Pessoa de Barros Filho.

The Minho University and the USP have an academic partnership since 2016 and, in this period, a total of 859 scientific works were produced in co-authoring, of which the joint works more than doubled its impacts in relation to the ones produced separately, showed the AUCANI president. “I was bewitched by the research structure of Minho aimed at medicine and engineering. I realize USP needs to internally unite these areas and it was with great enthusiasm the institutions embraced the idea of EMERE”, says Machado Neto.

“We already have an intense action with USP, an important number of published papers and impacting scientific production, which makes USP a strategic partner, especially by promoting the interface in the areas of engineering and medicine, of which the Minho University already has a lot of capacity”, says the Dean of the Minho University, Rui Vieira de Castro.

The Portuguese delegation – composed by Professor Manuela E. Gomes, president of i3Bs, and Vítor Correlo, director of innovation and services of i3Bs, besides the Dean Vieira de Castro – has remained in the visit to the USP for three days, a period in which they visited several laboratories of FMUSP and EPUSP. On Tuesday, may 7th, they took part in a gathering at the USP Dean’s Office, Professor Vahan Agopyan.

According to the EPUSP director, professor Liedi Bariani Bernucci, who also participated in the event at the Congregation Room of FMUSP, the engineering areas already have a lot of research aimed at regenerative medicine, but there’s still field to advance and this partnership is the opportunity for a high impact scientific production. Also present at the solemnity were the vice-director of EPUSP, professor Reinaldo Giudici, and the president of the Research Committee of the Unity, professor Gilberto Francisco Martha de Souza.

At the reception ceremony to the Portuguese, the president of the Research Committee of FMUSP, professor Rossana Pulcinele Vieira Francisco, introduced the speech of several researchers from InCor, HCFMUSP and EPUSP, who gave brief presentations on their line of research conducted in their laboratories.