PhD student, FCT fellow
Pedro Suzano is a Biochemistry PhD candidate jointly affiliated with the Faculty of Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, in collaboration with CoLAB AccelBio. Awarded a doctoral studentship by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) in 2026, he is currently investigating the role of calpain dysregulation in Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy using computational approaches, including Molecular Dynamics simulations and virtual screening.
He holds both a BSc and an MSc in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. His master's research, supervised by Professor Miguel Machuqueiro, culminated in the dissertation *Developing a Computational Method to Calculate pH-Dependent Membrane Permeabilities for Anti-Tumour Drugs*, through which he developed strong expertise in computational methods applied to biochemical and biophysical problems.
Prior to starting his PhD, Pedro was involved in several research projects spanning computational chemistry and molecular modelling. His work included the development and application of quantum mechanics-based methodologies in collaboration with Professor Miguel Machuqueiro and Professor Paulo Costa at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, as well as contributions to drug design and ABC transporter research with Professor Daniel dos Santos at CBIOS, Universidade Lusófona.
In 2025, he joined CoLAB AccelBio as a Computational Chemist, where he contributed to various stages of multiple computational drug discovery projects. In parallel, he taught 9th-grade mathematics for nine months, gaining valuable experience in teaching and scientific communication.
His technical expertise includes Molecular Dynamics and Constant-pH Molecular Dynamics simulations, Molecular Docking, Molecular Modelling, virtual screening, and scientific programming in Python and Bash. To date, he has co-authored three peer-reviewed publications and delivered several poster and oral presentations at national and international conferences. His current research interests focus on neurodegenerative diseases driven by protein dysfunction, the role of metal ion cofactors in protein function, and computational approaches to drug discovery.
