Profile

Miguel Prudêncio graduated in Biochemistry by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in 1993 and completed his PhD on Biochemistry by the University of East Anglia in 2000, followed by a post-doctoral period at the University of Leiden. In 2004, he became a post-doc in the field of malaria at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM). In 2008, he became a Staff Scientist of iMM’s Malaria Unit and an independent Group Leader in 2013. He is Invited Associate Professor of the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa since 2019, and completed his Habilitation to this Faculty in 2023. As iMM morphed into the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM) in October 2024, he became a Group Leader at the Lisbon site of the latter institution.
Miguel’s research interests focus on the investigation of Plasmodium liver stages and on the exploitation of their potential for anti-malarial intervention. His research program includes unveiling novel aspects of the biology of Plasmodium infection, identifying antiplasmodial drugs, establishing new experimental methodologies to study the malaria parasite, and investigating the reciprocal impact of co-infections with Plasmodium and other infectious agents. His ambition to contribute to the development of a much-needed effective vaccine against malaria has led him to investigate the immunology of Plasmodium liver infection, and to develop and clinically validate a novel approach to whole-sporozoite vaccination against malaria.
Miguel is the author of over 160 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals, has earned multiple scientific and innovation prizes, and is an inventor of several patents. He regularly lectures at undergraduate and graduate courses in various Universities.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Miguel was involved in setting up iMM’s Task Force for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics. He has a keen interest on vaccination and has addressed this issue on multiple occasions in conferences, webinars and in the media.