Natacha da Silva’s research on the logistical challenges of personalised cancer treatment was awarded the Best Master’s Thesis of 2025 from the Louvain School of Management in Belgium. The award was worth 500 euros.

The work carried out by the master’s alumna in Industrial Engineering and Management at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, which is part of the double degree programme between Técnico and the Belgian university, focused on the development of decision-support tools to optimise the design and planning of the supply chain for personalised cancer therapies, using a case study applied to the Portuguese National Health Service.

“These therapies are expanding rapidly and, because they are personalised, the logistics and distribution of these treatments become very complex and expensive”, she explains. The research focused on issues related to the location of specialist hospitals and patient distribution, combining “an economic perspective aimed at finding the most cost-effective planning for the National Health Service and patients” with “a social perspective that maximises access”.

The alumna received the award “with surprise and pride”, attributing the recognition to the growing relevance of the topic “not only in the Portuguese context, but also in a European and global context”. She also highlights the collaboration between the two higher education institutions as one of the “most striking aspects” of the dual degree programme. “Having the opportunity to work with professors from two different universities allowed me to engage with complementary perspectives and develop a more comprehensive approach to the problem”, she says, mentioning the guidance from Bruna Mota, a professor at Técnico.

Close contact with researchers and healthcare professionals was also “crucial in redefining the initial focus” of the thesis. Given the “lack of available data on personalised cancer vaccines”, the research was redirected towards CAR T cell therapies, a type of treatment that uses the patient’s own immune cells, altering them in the laboratory, to recognise and attack cancer cells. “After several meetings with doctors and professors at Universidade de Lisboa, we identified that there were other therapies that could also be personalised and were already being used in Portugal”, she adds.

An international experience that strengthened ties to Técnico

“The opportunity to obtain two degrees in two years, along with the international experience of being part of a programme that provides high-quality teaching and the chance to join an innovative and prestigious institution, was very attractive to me”, recalls Natacha da Silva.

“An intrinsic aspect of the courses at Técnico is the development of critical thinking and logical reasoning”, she says. For the student, one of the key components of training involves “making the connection between academic theory and the business and professional world”, translating this knowledge “into actions that effectively improve the way we think not only about industrial processes, but also about our way of working and approaching challenges”.

During her exchange period in Belgium, Natacha da Silva observed different teaching methods and academic priorities, with a focus on logistics and supply chain management. “It was very interesting observing these differences not only in working methods, in the examples given in class, and even in the subjects that professors consider most relevant”, she says.

Outside the academic context, her university experience was also marked by her continued involvement in sport. As a swimmer during her degree, she was a member of UCLouvain’s university teams, successfully balancing competition with her studies and international academic life. “I had a very well-rounded academic experience”, she says.

Ultimately, the international experience deepened her connection to Portugal and the path she took at Técnico. “A good part of what I learnt abroad was to look inwards and appreciate what is also achieved here”, she concludes, considering that the time spent abroad was “crucial in my decision to enter the national job market”.