i3S researchers win innovation awards from Astrazeneca

Two young i3S researchers, Telma Costa and Ana Manuela Borges, recently participated in the AstraZeneca Foundation Innovate Competition (Conference iMed 12.0, in Lisbon) and won the prize for best oral presentation in the Basic and Translational research categories, respectively. Each researcher received a scholarship for three thousand euros to invest in cancer research projects they are developing in the context of their master's dissertations.

Telma Costa's work focuses on T lymphocyte Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL) and the understanding of their mechanisms. In this project, which is being developed in the group Intercellular Communication and Cancer. "We sought to eliminate myeloid cells (which include dendritic cells and macrophages) from the tumor microenvironment in transgenic mice to see what effect it would have on the development and progression of the disease in vivo", explains the master student.

She explains that preliminary results "reveal that the deletion of this type of cells seems to delay the progression of the disease, with a lower tumor burden on the organs affected by it". In addition, Telma Costa stresses, "these results suggest that myeloid cells play a major role in the evolution of acute lymphoblastic leukemia of T lymphocytes".

The project that Ana Manuela Borges is developing in the group Tumor and Microenvironment Interactions, in collaboration with the group Intercellular Communication and Cancer and the Pathological Anatomy Service of Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João, focuses on the study of the tumor microenvironment of colorectal cancer, that is, in the role of all other non-tumor cells and the extracellular matrix that cohabit with the tumor, and whose activity regulates the behavior of the tumor cells and dictates the success of the disease progression.

"We are now studying the molecular mechanisms underlying the anti-inflammatory and pro-invasive activity of CCL18, an immunosuppressive chemokine that has been associated with a poor prognosis in several neoplasms", explains Ana Manuela Borges. The promising results obtained, reveals the young researcher, "demonstrate that CCL18 is significantly more expressed on the invasive front of more advanced tumors. We now have the objective of developing a new therapeutic strategy that, aiming at this molecule, shapes the immunosuppressive microenvironment of tumors and thus prevents the progression of the disease".