CV - Curriculum Vitae

Academic degrees

• 2024 - MsC in Leadership, School of Business & Economics, NOVA University. 

• 2004 - PhD in Anatomy & Cell Biology; School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences,  SUNY Buffalo, USA

• 1997 - Post-grad Dev. Biology; Univ. Lusófona, PT

• 1994 - Licenciature in Biology, Faculdade de Ciências, Univ. Lisboa

Professional experience

• Head of the "UIC:Advanced Imaging Facility" at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência since 2013-2024

• Assistant Professor (by invitation) of Bioimaging at Faculdade de Ciencias, Univ Lisboa, responsible for the "Bioimaging" MsC course (36h) 2008-2020

• NEUBIAS COST action, WG2 leader and management committee member (representing Portugal) 2015-2020

• co-Coordinator (South region) of the Portuguese Platform for Bioimaging (ESFRI roadmap initiative)

• Organizer of the "EMBO Course on 3D Developmental Imaging" series 2008-2022 (7 editions)

• Researcher at CBA/FCUL 2008-2012, collaborator 2012-2017

• Organizer of the "Practical Image Analysis in Biology" CBA advanced course 2012

• Lecturer in "Biologia Desenvolvimento Animal" undergrad course FCUL 2008-2012

• Manager of "Unidade de Microscopia" FCUL 2007-2012

• Member of Executive Committee CBA(FCUL) 2009-2010

• Lecturer "Genes e Moleculas no Desenvolvimento" master's course, FCUL 2008-2010

    Other qualifications

• Associated Editor for the Journal Microscopy Research and Technique 

• Reviewer for journals of cell biology, anatomy/embryology, microscopy and methods (13) 

• Scientific Review Panel for CORBEL and COST actions

• Animal Experimentation certification (FELASA catC)

• Optical Microscopy and Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences course, Woods-Hole, 2002

• 1st year of Licenciature in "Information Technology and Management" by  Universidade Moderna, 1995

• Scientific Illustration (120h) by Sociedade Pt. Biologia, 1992

   Experience as scientific advisor:

• Catarina Bota (CEDOC/IGC - co-adviser) MsS practicum, 2017-2018

• Maria Rita Pegado (IGC); PhD practicum, 2018

• Ana Couto (FCUL, Lab Marítimo da Guia; co-advisor with Rui Rosa). Practicum, 2015

• Ânia Gonçalves (IGC). IEFP practicum, 2015-2016

• Ricardo Araújo (IGC); PhD practicum, 2014

• Nelson Nhamutole (IGC & Mozambique). MsS practicum, 2014-2015

• Pedro Almada (FCUL). MsS practicum, 2012

• Ana Raquel Jacinto (FCUL). MsC Thesis "The role of N-cadherin in chick somitogenesis" 2011

• Joana Mateus (FCUL). MsC Thesis "Effect of polyploidy in the development and epigenetics in S. alburnoides" 2011

• Tomás Azevedo (FCUL). MsC Thesis "Dynamics axis elongation in amniotes vs. anamniotes: Role of notochord" 2009.

• António Temudo (FCUL). MsC Thesis "Mecânica e Mecanismos de Somitogénese Embriões de Vertebrados" 2008.

• Rita Amândio (FCUL). MsC Thesis "Morphodynamics of somite epithelialisation in chick embryos" 2008.

    Participation on Jury committees

• António, 2026 (PhD, ITQB)

• Ricardo, 2025 (Masters, GIMM)

• Marina Fridman 2019 (PhD, CCU/FC)

• Telmo Pereira, 2017 (PhD, UNL)

• Ana Russo, 2016 (Masters, FCUL)

• Margarida Parente, 2016 (PhD, ITQB/FCT-UNL)

• Sergio Cardoso, 2015 (Masters, FCT-UNL)

• Susana Gomes, 2013 (PhD thesis, FCT-UNL)

• Cláudia Aragão, 2012 (Licenciature, FCT-UNL)

• Ricardo Henriques, 2011 (PhD thesis, FMUL)

• Pedro Lopes, 2011 (Masters, FCUL/IGC)

• Pedro Silva, 2011 (Masters, FCUL/IGC)

• Cláudia Mendes, 2010 (Masters, FCUL/IMM)

• Joana Lima, 2010 (Masters, FCUL/IMM)

    Organization of scientific events (last 5y)

• Organizer of Sample2Image -  cell & tissue processing for 3D imaging and histopathology, 2026

• Scientifi committee member for ELMI 2026. 

• Organizer of the SPAOM2021, and scintific committee meember of various SPAOM editions. 

• Co-organizer of the "EMBO practical course on Computational Optical Biology", May 2022

• Organizer of the "EMBO practical course on 3D Developmental Imaging" (7 editions, in Oeiras)

• Coordination of NEUBIAS 10x training schools, Barcelona16, Oeiras17, Gothenburgh17, Szeged18, Edinburgh18, Luxembourg19, Porto19, Bordeaux20

• Local organizer of NEUBIAS2020 symposium Lisbon Feb 2017

• Scientifi commitee of INCOMAM meeting, Coimbra 2018

• Scientific committe of SPAOM, Spanish & Portuguese Advanced Optical Microscopy meetings, Bilbao16, Granada18, Coimbra19

• Creator of multiple "microWorkshops" and "microCourses" (FCUL, IGC, GIMM) 2008-2026. 

Recent grants & awards (last 5y)

    Grants as PI/proponent or with coordination roles (links here)

• FCT "OPenT & IMAGIOLOGIA MESOSCÓPICA MULTIMODAL" ref 02/SAICT/2017 (PI) 240K€

• FCT ROTEIRO/0076/2013. “PPBI - Portuguese Platform for Bioimaging”. 2017-2020. Roteiro Nacional de Infraestruturas de Investigação de Interesse Estratégico (co-coordinator). 5.15M€

• COST action 2015 NEUBIAS - A new Network of European BioImage Analysts to advance life science imaging (co-proponent and WG2 leader)  746K€

• POR-Lisboa, LISBOA-01-0162-FEDER-001151 - LxCLEM - Infraestrutura tecnológica para observação e análise correlativa da dinâmica e ultraestrutura celular por microscopias óptica e eletrónica (co-proponent) 90K€

• ESRF "Tomography applied to the study of the first possible crocodilian fossil eggs and embryos" application for beam time Ref. No 33984 (PI)

    Participation in grant projects (links here)

• PTDC/AAG-GLO/1926/2014 SHARKFIT: Impactos das alterações climaticas no incio da ontogenia de tubarões temperados e tropicais (participant) 150K€

• FCT EXPL/BIA-EVF/1211/2013 - Bringing mammal antecessors back to life: evolution and preservation of Permian dicynodonts from Mozambique (participant) 90K€

    Awards

• Selected 1 of 30 distinguished professionals of 2014, by the Portuguese Presidency. 

• 1st price, 2013 Nikon Small World in Motion Award

• "Haeckaliens" quailE13 and rabbit images of distinction" of 2013 NIKON SMALL WORLD PHOTOMICROGRAPHY COMPETITION.

• "Best-talk" award - Portuguese for the Society for Developmental Biology, 2013

• EMBO grants for organization of "3D Developmental Imaging" courses (6 editions since 2008)

Scientific contributions

My first scientific project was to fully 3D reconstruct early sea-urchin embryos and show that GI tract extension involves increase in number of cells, and  not simply rearrangements (1 paper). I then studied cell migration in vitro and we demonstrated that mechanisms of endothelial cell migration in 3D matrices differs significantly from those observed in conventional 2D cultures, and that microtubules play an important role in regulating cell-matrix interactions, crucial for migration in 3D (2 papers). Working in somitogenesis, we produced the first 3D movies of chick somite formation and discovered a plethora of cellular movements and morphogenetic processes spanning well beyond the period of one clock cycle in chick (1 paper), and showed that the ECM plays important roles in instructing and containing cells during somite formation and their transformation into muscle, both in vivo and in vitro (3 papers). Other ongoing works include the study of somitogenesis and the dynamics of axis extension in amniotes vs anamniotes, the effect of poliploidy in early development of a naturally occurring iberian species of polyploid fish (3 posters), the description of developmental stages of non-model species, the anatomical description of fossil samples imaged through synchrotron and microCT imaging (1 paper), and the use of artificial matrices in cell culture for tissue engineering (2 papers). 

More recently I demonstrated how to implement optical tomography with fully open-source tools (OPenT), and participated in the development of the OpenSPIN Microscopy platform, which allows construction of systems like optical tomography and light-sheet (3 publications).

I created and maintain the "Haeckaliens" site (http://www.gabygmartins.info/research/haeckaliens), where optical tomography images of non-model species embryos are shared openly. One of these images received the 1st prize in the Nikon small world video competition in 2013!