Dr. Manuel Goncalves

Manuel Gonçalves received his M.Sc. degree in Plant biotechnology from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. After a post-graduation period in a gene therapy company, he was awarded a fellowship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology to perform his Ph.D. research on the development of viral vector systems for the stable genetic modification of human cells. This research took place at the University of Leiden and at the biotechnology company Crucell (currently part of Johnson & Johnson’s group), in the Netherlands. In 2015, Dr. Gonçalves became associate professor at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology of the Leiden University Medical Center (currently Department of Cell and Chemical Biology). In this capacity, he supervises a research team whose research interests are (i) converting viral vectors into delivery agents of gene-editing tools; (ii) studying the impact of epigenetic mechanisms on the performance of different gene-editing tools and strategies; and (iii) developing seamless and scarless gene-editing approaches based on guiding specific DNA repair pathways after introducing programmable nucleases or “nickases” into target cells. In this context, his team has pioneered the investigation of viral vectors as delivery vehicles of TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases.