Rita Leitoguinho Email & Phone Number

Melbourne, Vic, Au

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Highlights:• Pivotal role in attracting National and International customers to invest in Melbourne-based manufacturing platforms for cancer research.• Leading, managing and providing subject matter expertise during the development of new cellular therapies.• Managing process development and validation to prepare a product for Australian and International clinical trials.• Assist in Post-Covid cancer diagnosis and manage the demand for immunotherapies,which has increased to meet demand to assist Victoria’s Health response.• Actively involved in recruiting highly skilled staff and promoting the creation of new jobs, further supporting Victorian economic recovery and health response.• Aid and guidance in the construction of a Facility extension which includes 4 new cleanrooms for manufacturing of cellular therapies which will attract International commercial partners and further improves Victorian financial system.• Recipient of the June quarter 2021 “Above & Beyond Award” for extraordinary work over the last 6 months.• Professional Training courses a) Leading & Managing: The people of Technology & Manufacturing Teams in Bioscience (Marlow Hampshire) and b) GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) for Tissue Banking (SeerPharma).Key Responsibilities:• Providing subject matter expertise during the development of new cellular therapies.• Leading and managing cell therapy development projects to assist the technology transfer.• Management of Product supply logistics, involving liaising with Brokers such as World Courier to receive and distribute personalized immunotherapies.• Managing process development and validation to prepare a product for clinical trials.• Providing subject matter expertise for clinical trial batch manufacturing.• Evaluate and analyze the process of assigned cellular therapy products to make sure they comply with regulatory bodies such as the TGA.• Adhering to standard operating procedures and Good Manufacturing Practice.

Parkville, Victoria, Australia

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Highlights:• Evaluates genetically modified human Pluripotent Stem Cells for their capacity to model childhood leukemias.• Conducts ethical research at the highest level of integrity and in line with the Australian Code for Responsible Conduct of Research and MCRI policies.• Fosters relationships with key internal and external stakeholders.• Contributes to the supervision of students and to the skill development of peers.• Is engaged in the campus culture including professional activities, membership of campus committees and contributing to/attending internal/external campus conferences and seminars.Key Responsibilities:• Evaluates various protocols for hPSC differentiation to determine the optimal method for this disease modelling project.• Works to further improve skill base in bioinformatics analysis of transcriptional profiling data.• Undertakes high caliber competitive research.• Works to improve skill base in research productivity and methodology.• Follows standard operating procedures, study protocols and study guidelines.• Conducts continuous maintenance of neat and orderly records, logbooks and data storage.• Identifies ways to improve data collection/quality utilized by the team/group or research.• Understands and follows field work guidelines GCP (Good Clinical Practice) / ICH (International Council for Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use).

Melbourne, Australia

Highlights:• Melbourne International Research Scholarship (MIRS) and Melbourne International Fee Remission Scholarship (MIFRS) awarder from The University of Melbourne.• Authorship of two scientific papers in highly regarded scientific journals which have considerably advanced cancer research. First author Publication of PhD Thesis.• Collaborations with different research academic institutes around Parkville Medical Research precinct.• Partnership Programs between Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), Melbourne, and with Industry Partners like CSL to develop innovative cancer treatments.• 5 Travel Awards to attend and present in National and International Stem Cell conferences, representing University of Melbourne and MCRI. 3 Best presentation/poster awards in National and International conferences.• Junior Ambassador and Member of “Stem Cells Australia”; “Australian Society of Stem Cell Research” and “International Society of Experimental Hematology” to promote Australian-based Stem Cell research internationally.

Utrecht Area, Netherlands

miRNAs in cardiac diseases, a potential weapon against ARVC/D; Cardiac-specific CRISPR-Cas9 mice for genome editing and its application to generate models of Cardiomyopathy. Gene editing, maintenance and differentiation of induced Pluripotent Stem cells from patients. Highlights:• Participation and attendance in European Conferences for Stem Cell Research.• Authorship of one scientific paper in highly regarded scientific journal which has considerably advanced research in cardiac diseases.• Conducting ethical scientific research and design and conduct scientific experiments making observations, measurements and analysing scientific data.• Study the growth and characteristics of human induced pluripotent stem cells in a laboratory environment and the effects of drugs and other factors to develop practical application such as new medicines.Key responsibilities:• Exploring CRISPR/CAS9 genetic editing tools for genome editing.• Investigating the role of miRNAs in cardiac diseases.• Follows standard operating procedures, study protocols and study guidelines.• Continuous maintenance of neat and orderly records, lab books and data storage.

"Expansion and developmental patterning of human pluripotent stem cellderivedcardiovascular progenitors"; "Contractile defect caused by mutation in MYBPC3 revealed under conditions optimized for human PSC-cardiomyocyte function"Highlights:• Authorship of two scientific papers in highly regarded scientific journal which have considerably advanced research in cardiac diseases.Key responsibilities:• Study the growth and characteristics of human cells in a laboratory environment and the effects of drugs and other factors to develop practical application such as new medicines.• Use induced pluripotent stem cells to derive cardiac progenitor cells.• Use cardiac progenitor cells to study human heart diseases.• Conduct experiments to study the expansion and developmental patterning of human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived cardiovascular progenitors.

Utrecht Area, Netherlands

Utrecht E Região, Holanda

Utrecht E Região, Holanda

The roles of PIWIL3 and TACC3 during bovine oocyte development

Lisboa E Região, Portugal

RT- PCRs performed for publishing purposes of the paper "Fibronectin promotes migration, alignment and fusion in an in vitro myoblast cell model" by Vaz et al

Lisboa E Região, Portugal

An X-Chromosome Loss-of-Function Screen Using a P-Element to Identify Genes Linked to Immune Response in Drosophila larvae

Lisboa E Região, Portugal

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism for tissue regeneration in vertebrats

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Biomedical Sciences, General

Master Of Science - Ms, Evolutionary And Developmental Biology

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Developmental And Evolutionary Biology