image: This image shows MIT Portugal alumna Maria Joseacute Pereira, who was recently recognized by Forbes on the list "30 Under 30" in Healthcare. view more
Credit: Maria Joseacute Pereira
For the fourth year, Forbes magazine publishes its annual "30 Under 30" list. This year 600 millennials were recognised by Forbes over 20 different fields of expertise, among them is Maria Jose Pereira, MIT Portugal alumna, honoured for her work in the field of Healthcare.
Forbes "30 Under 30" in Healthcare focuses on a list of young scientists who are changing the world, from founders to economists, policy makers, and researchers.
During her PhD research work at MIT, Maria Jose Pereira contributed to the development of a bio-inspired adhesive that could rapidly attach biodegradable patches inside a beating heart -in the exact place where congenital holes in the heart occur, such as ventricular heart defects present on 6 out of 1000 births. Unlike current surgical adhesives, this new adhesive maintains very strong sticking power when in the presence of blood and it doesn't need to be replaced as the child grows. This work was developed while Maria Jose was a PhD candidate under the MIT Portugal, a program funded by the Portuguese Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT). The adhesive technology have since been licensed to a company, Gecko Biomedical, based in Paris, where Maria Jose Pereira is currently Head of Adhesive Technologies.
All the honourees to make the list are under 30 years old and were admitted by a panel of expert judges in their respective field.
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