Dr. Miguel X. Fernandes
Senior Scientist
Head of the Computation Division at BioLab
Biography
PhD in Biochemistry (2000). Dr. Fernandes is an expert in the field of drug design, co-authoring more than 50 peer reviewed publications, co-inventor in 3 patents and founder of the biotechnology company Orfan Biotech (2016). He participated in several national and European research projects, developed tools of scientific software.
He founded the Molecular Modeling Laboratory at the University of Madeira, where he was Assistant Professor in 2005 and coordinated its activities until 2013. The Molecular Modeling Laboratory, in addition to providing advanced training to students and scholarship holders, established several fruitful collaborations with Medicinal Chemistry and Experimental Biology. From 2009 to 2013, he was Vice Chancellor of the Universidad da Madeira for the area of Budget, Planning and Research, which provided him a wealth of management experience.
At BioLab, he develops and uses different methods, based on the ligand and based on the structure to answer biological and drug design questions with the ultimate goal of finding therapeutic solutions to rare and neglected diseases.