Cancer Nanomedicine: Special Issue in Honour of Prof. Joao Conde’s Contribution to Nanomedicine

João Conde is a Full Professor of Precision Medicine & Oncogenomics (BioMedicine) at NOVA Medical School, Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. He holds a Habilitation (Agregação) in Biomedicine (2023), with a specialization in Precision Medicine and Oncogenomics. His expertise spans oncogenomics, nanomedicine and gene therapy, with a strong focus on precision medicine in oncology. In 2013, he received his PhD in Biology with a specialization in NanoBiotechnology from the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and the Universidad de Zaragoza as part of the FP7 European Consortium NanoScieE+-NanoTruck for the development of multifunctional gold nanoparticles for gene silencing. Following that, he was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Harvard-MIT Division for Health Sciences and Technology, and Queen Mary University of London's School of Engineering and Materials Science. In 2019, he won an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council (1.5M€) to build a genetic biobarcode to profile breast cancer heterogeneity. He is also a co-founder of the biotech company TargTex, Targeted Therapeutics for Glioblastoma Multiforme (Funding ~18M€, European Innovation Council Accelerator - 14M€). Since 2020, he is also a Senior Collaborator of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Consortium from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington. In 2023, he partnered with Vector Bioscience Cambridge to develop cancer therapies. Since 2024, he has been on the Scientific Advisory board of Vector Bioscience Cambridge. From March 2024 to November 2025 he was the Vice Dean for Research at NOVA Medical School. In 2025, NOVA Medical School was awarded ~6.5M€ (FEDER-LISBOA2030 and Haddad Foundation) to build a preclinical-to-clinical hub and a medical innovation center with Prof. João Conde as one of the scientific coordinators. Since March 2026, Prof. João Conde has also been a member of the Research & Development Working Group I team, part of the National Program for Oncological Diseases at the Directorate-General for Health.

The main aspects related to the recognition and diffusion of his early contributions are: more than 31902 citation in 180 articles in journals of Cancer Therapy, Oncology, Nanotechnology/Materials Science and NanoMedicine (Nature, The Lancet, Nature Medicine, Nature Materials, The Lancet Oncology, Nature Nanotechnology, JAMA Oncology, Nature Reviews Materials, Science Advances, Nature Communications, The Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol, Nature Rev Methods Primers, PNAS, The Lancet Neurology, Nature Rev Bioengineering, The Lancet Public Health, Accounts of Chemical Research, The Lancet Child Adolesc Health, Progress in Materials Science, ACS Nano, Advanced Materials, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Science, Trends in Cancer, Trends in Biotechnology, Biomaterials, etc). In addition, 12 international patents on nanomaterials-based platforms for cancer therapy and diagnosis were submitted and/or approved.

About this collection

Prof. João Conde has made significant contributions to cancer nanomedicine and has been recognised as one of the top leaders in the field around the globe. His scientific contributions have transformed our understanding of developing clinically relevant nanomedicines using local delivery approaches. More recently, he has developed various approaches for translating lab research to the hospital and then to the market through innovative collaborations. Hence, Nanotheranostics is conducting a special issue in honour of Prof. Joao Conde’s contribution to nanomedicine. The special issue focuses on attracting the scientific community to submit their research, review, mini-review, perspective, etc., on the recent developments and innovations for cancer diagnosis and effective treatment. This special issue will cover the following topics.

• Nanoimaging and Nanotherapeutics
• Precision Medicine & Oncogenomics (BioMedicine)
• Drug Delivery and Nanocarriers
• Biomimetic nanomedicine and Nanovesicles
• Nano-assembled and bio-conjugated systems
• Coupling chemistry in Nanotheranostics
• Nanoparticles for solid tumor targeting
• Hydrogels for nanoparticles delivery

Guest Editors

Prof. Zaver M. Bhujwalla, PhD
Director, Division of Cancer Imaging Research, Department of Radiology
Co-Leader, Cancer Molecular and Functioning Imaging Program (CMFI), Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Vice Chair of Research, Department of Radiology
William R. Brody Professor in Radiology
Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
Email: 

Prof. Lucia Gemma Delogu PhD
Head of the ImmuneNano Lab
www.delogulab.eu
Department of Biomedical Sciences
University of Padua,
Via Ugo Bassi 58, 35131, Padua, Italy
Email: 

Dr. Bárbara B. Mendes
Assistant Researcher
NOVA Medical School|Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, NMS|FCM, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
E-mail:                

Manuscript submission information

All the invited and contributed manuscripts will undergo the standard peer-review procedure of the Journal Nanotheranostics, and will be scrutinized by expert reviewers in the field. Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page https://www.ntno.org/ms/author.

Manuscripts for this special issue should be submitted online at https://www.ntno.org/ms/submit  (mentioning “Special Issue in Honour of Prof. Joao Conde’s Contribution to Nanomedicine” in the cover letter to identify the manuscript).

Submitting authors may contact Dr. Bárbara B. Mendes; or Dr. Rajendra Prasad; for quesions related to special issue invitation and submission.