 Ligia Rodrigues Title: Asst. Professor, University of Minho, MIT Portugal Program, Bioengineering Focus Area
MIT Portugal teaching activities: Bio-teams course
Current research interests: Breast cancer biomarkers and chemotherapeutics, biomaterials in health and synthetic biology.
Ligia Rodrigues was a visiting scholar at MIT from January – July 2008. She recently sat down with MIT Portugal’s Communications Director Michelle Gaseau to talk about her work and the program. MG: Tell us about your background? LR: I completed my undergraduate degree in Bioengineering at the University of Minho and then worked in a research project for two years. Then I decided to get a Master’s in Biotechnology – Bioprocess Engineering at the University of Minho. Afterwards, I had different opportunities but in the end I applied for a PhD grant from FCT and started my PhD studies. Then I changed my area of research. MG: What did you change it to? LR: In my Master’s I worked in the development of a downstream process for the recovery and purification of whey proteins, but I wanted to work in the biomedical field, so when I applied to the PhD grant, I focused on that. My focus was adhesion phenomenon and compounds produced by lactic acid bacteria (biosurfactants) – and how these compounds could inhibit microbial adhesion onto prostheses - specifically, silicone rubber voice prostheses. I finished my PhD in 2005 and I liked research, so I applied for a post doc grant and stayed to do more. I changed my research area a little and I started working in the breast cancer area - looking at two proteins existing in milk and how they could be used either as biomarkers or as chemotherapeutics. MG: How did you come to the MIT Portugal Program and what attracted you to the program? LR: I applied in 2007 when MIT Portugal opened faculty positions. [These positions] are different in that you are supposed to spend half time doing research and half the time teaching. Because the program is so new, we have a lot of tasks that other similar positions might not have, such as in the organizational aspects. Also, we have different aims and challenges – other faculty keep doing their research. But for us, it is developing new relationships with MIT and for me, it is developing a new area of study for Portugal. These responsibilities are good practice for the future in terms of planning the logistics of where are the students going to stay? How do you transport students during leadership weekend? For example, we had the Bioweek [conference] in Minho recently and my colleagues helped a lot in running the conference. MG: It sounds like the MIT Portugal Program is a unique opportunity? LR: As a junior faculty what is unique is the opportunity of establishing collaboration with several other faculty at MIT involved in the program and the opportunity to be on the edge of the knowledge -- this is the most important thing. Also being involved in a different type of doctoral program and lecturing in it. The way the program is organized and taught is quite different from other doctoral programs we have [in Portugal]. I got to experience the MIT way of teaching courses first hand because I took i-Teams [a School of Engineering innovation course] and other courses and I had the opportunity to see some of the MIT faculty teach classes. In this Bioengineering program of MIT Portugal the teaching is the same format as what is being done here at MIT. MG: Do the MIT Portugal students need to prepare differently for the MIT Portugal classes? LR: Here [and in the MIT Portugal Program] the classes are organized differently. Students have to prepare for the classes and then the classes are more interactive and the students are more inquisitive and this plays out in the MPP courses. I will definitely try to apply those things in the courses that I will teach. The good thing about the program is to bring this back to the Portuguese reality. MG: What is it like to be a visitor at MIT? How is it different than elsewhere? LR: As a student they have to learn how to live in a different environment – it’s more stressful. There’s a lot of work. I think the students coming here are excited, but also a little bit anxious. Also, for some of them it is the first time they will be abroad. Also, a nice thing at MIT is that you can approach a senior faculty and send an email, they’ll manage to give you 30 minutes even if you are a student. Faculty here are very open to meet and discuss ideas; this the students [visiting MIT] will appreciate for sure. Also, students are not used to bothering the senior faculty, but they will find that even if you don’t get a reply right away, you can always try a second or third time and that’s ok. MG: What did you do at MIT as a visiting scholar? LR: I had an appointment for six months. I came to do the i-Teams class and to see how it is taught so I can join the team already working on it in Portugal. After that, one of the challenges I have is to launch a new field of study in Portugal in synthetic biology. We don’t have anyone working in it in Portugal as far as we know. Creating something like this is always difficult because you have to seek funds to fund the labs and the human resources and you have to find good collaborations. I came here to establish contacts with key people in the field and to learn about this and understand the opportunities we have. Also I learned to think about ways to set up a lab in synthetic biology and train people to work on it. Even outside the MIT Portugal Program, I found mentors who would give me advice and additionally access to other events in the field, such as the weekly synthetic biology working group meetings. The lab, if it is developed, would start at University of Minho and involve other universities – one of the big things about the program is to get the Portuguese universities working together. MG: After your visit, what are some ideas you will take back to your students in the program? LR: With teaching – I’ll be involved in the bio-Teams. This is something that is unique because it is picking up a technology and then building a go-to-market strategy. If these teams are successful maybe we can have one or two or three start-ups in a few years. This is a great experience for the students and for the PI’s it is really something different. This is a good mode for development and innovation for the country. Some ideas will be successful and some not, but I think some of these can have commercial value. Going back to the uniqueness of MIT – it is changing in Portugal but slowly – this has to be with a [new] mentality for career progression. For faculty to progress [in Portugal] you have to publish and scientists seeking a position have to publish. People there are not so worried about patenting their ideas, but if you don’t patent it, then it is more difficult to get commercial value. This is definitely being taught to students through the MIT Portugal Program. For me as a visiting scholar it was a new thing to see that everything that is being done has an application commercially and people consider how to get these things to market. | 
