Portuguese scientist on MIT Technology Review's list of top innovators

In every thousand babies, six are affected by cardiovascular defects. An adhesive formed by a new biomaterial that facilitates the repair of these defects was the technology developed by Maria José Pereira that earned her entry in the annual list of innovators under 35 years of age by the MIT Technology Review magazine.

The treatment currently available involves open-chest surgery, which is invasive and not without risk. Suture is used to close the "tiny holes" between the heart chambers, a procedure that can damage fragile tissue. Several surgeries may follow to monitor growth.

The adhesive developed by Maria José Pereira can be applied in a minimally invasive way and, unlike others, the material it is made of is strong and flexible: it adheres well to tissue, withstanding the constant pressure exerted on an organ such as the heart, causes no damage to heart tissue, and does not need to be replaced as the child grows.

Maria José Pereira developed this new technology while she was a doctoral student at the MIT Portugal Program, funded by FCT. She is 28 years old and currently coordinates the Adhesion Technologies area at the start-up GeckoBiomedical, a company that will transfer this technology to the market in an estimated period of 2 to 3 years.

 The researcher considers "an honor to be part of the list of Innovators under 35 years old. This distinction recognizes the innovative character of the technological platform we are developing and its potential to change the way minimally invasive surgery is performed". She also stresses that "this work was made possible by the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team that looked at this problem from different angles".

The scientist is the first Portuguese woman to join a list of technology vanguards recognized in the last 10 years by the international magazine, which includes, among others, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's chief designer Jonathan Ive, and Tumblr creator David Karp.