Sofia Morazzo

Sofia Morazzo DVM

PhD Student, Technology Scout, Science Communicator and BIOTOP Seminar founder and organizer

Future Goal: To combine the use of CRISPR and organoid co-culture systems to develop metastatic models applicable to personalized medicine

About

Sofia obtained her title of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal in 2017. During her studies, she volunteered and did internships in different veterinary hospitals around the world, working mostly with horses and wild animals. She did her master thesis in Graça Ferreira-Dias’ lab, in Molecular Biology and Reproductive Phsyiology, studying the effects of Nodal and TGF-beta in the development of fibrosis in the mare’s endometrium.

After her graduation, she worked pro bono for two years, completing her project and collaborating with other colleagues, resulting in two publications as co-author and many participations in top conferences.

She has since started her PhD studies at the International Clinical Research Center of St. Anne’s University Hospital (FNUSA-ICRC). She is enrolled in the Biomedical Sciences & MUNI Mendel Doctorandus program of the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.

Her project, in Giacarlo Forte’s group of Mechanobiology of Disease, is focused on uncovering how ERK3, an atypical MAPK protein, contributes to Triple Negative Breast Cancer Progression. As part of her project, she has developed skills in confocal imaging, and, particularly, in gene editing and silencing, learning about the use of CRISPR and iRNA, and traditional plasmid based gene expression manipulation. As part of her training, she was accepted to the EMBL Course about CRISPR genome editing in mouse embryos. She has also collaborated with other projects using iPSC-derived lung organoids and patient-derived tumor organoids to study metastasis (paper now in preprint).

She has a strong interest in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Science and in helping students develop soft skills and getting more aware of job opportunities. Following her interests, she worked as a Technology Scout for her institute for almost two years and participated in the SPARK course about Biomedical Entrepreneurship. She has founded the BIOTOP Seminars at Masaryk University, which has recently become an official course. She is also a lecturer of Modern Imaging and Analytical Methods in Cellular Biology and Immunology.

Finally, as part of her interest in science communication, she participates in the Science Talks of her institute on a sazonal basis, reaching out to high-school students or first-year medical students about mechanobiology in cancer and has given an inteview about “The five things to know about cancer”.

Check her ORCID Profile here:

ORCID Profile

Courses and workshops

EMBL Course: Genome engineering: CRISPR/Cas from cells to mice – October 2022

EMBL Heidelberg – Prestigious EMBL Course with a 10% acceptance rate:

• CRISPR/Cas9 design and optimization for efficient gene editing
• Generation of knock-out and knock-in cell lines and mouse embryos
• Validation of genome-edited cell lines and embryos

Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship training course – October 2021

SPARK Global

• Developed fundamental knowledge about tech transfer, and start-up planning
• Developed a “theoretical” model of pancreatic cancer organ-on-chip, using bioprinting. Our model/presentation won best pitch award.

Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials – August 2021

Johns Hopkins University, via Coursera

CRISPR (Design, Strategy & Analysis) – July 2021

CamBioScience

3D Cell Models and Organoid Systems – July 2021

CamBioScience

Trends in the communication and popularization of science & research – September 2021

With Dr. Michael G.S Londesborough B.SC Hons Ph.D

From PhD to Innovator – September 2021

Falling Walls Foundation

Wound Treatment and Reconstructive Surgery – April 2014

3V Formação

• Twitter
• LinkedIn