Gilead Génese supports i3S projects on breast cancer and HIV/AIDS infection

The Gilead Génese Portugal Program recognized six research works in the areas of oncology and virology and six community intervention projects. Sandra Tavares and Ana Isabel Pinto, both scientists at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health at the University of Porto (i3S) were two of the six winners, with projects on metastases in triple-negative breast cancer and work on HIV/AIDS infection.

The project led by Sandra Tavares, called PRESSING, will receive funding of 26 thousand euros from the biopharmaceutical Gilead Sciences and aims to study a tumor that represents 10 to 15 percent of breast cancers, being more common in young women. The researcher wants to "identify molecules that are involved in the development of metastases in triple-negative breast cancer with the aim of defining treatment strategies that allow controlling these molecules".

She guarantees that this work “will contribute directly to stimulate a better treatment for triple-negative breast cancer. With our results we intend to contribute to the development of therapies that will improve the treatment of this type of cancer, always thinking about making treatments less toxic and debilitating for the patient, thus improving the quality of life of recovered patients”.

This prize, stresses Sandra Tavares “is of enormous importance, as it consolidates my own line of research and my first steps as an independent researcher. It will give me access to state-of-the-art and almost prohibitive technology because it is so expensive”. With this prize and this project, she adds, “we are finally going to answer a series of questions that until now remained open”.

Researcher Ana Isabel Pinto, for her part, was award a Gilead Génese prize in the Community Intervention Projects category, worth 20,000 euros. Entitled “First Serological Molecular and Sociodemographic Characterization of exposure to Leishmania spp. in the HIV-infected population in the North of Portugal”, this work’s main objective is to screen the parasitic infection of leishmaniasis in seropositive individuals.

Leishmaniasis, explains Ana Isabel Pinto, “is a serious parasitic disease that has emerged as an important opportunistic condition in HIV+ patients. As the infection is usually detected late and diagnostic methods are limited, it is difficult to control this co-infection”. As such, underlines the researcher, “it is imperative to promote active screening and monitoring strategies, which allow the early identification of Leishmania infection in HIV+ patients”. “As part of the construction of a biobank, we intend to determine the level of exposure to Leishmania in HIV+ patients in the North of Portugal”, says the i3S researcher.