Vítor Costa elected president of the Portuguese Society of Biochemistry

Researcher Vítor Costa, leader of the "Yeast Signaling Networks" group, was recently elected president of the Portuguese Society of Biochemistry (PSB). Over the next two years, the objective is to promote teaching and research in the area of Biochemistry and to get greater involvement of younger members in the activities of the society and of international counterparts.
 
The new president of the PSB was elected at the last General Assembly of this scientific society, after a journey that began in 2015, when he assumed the position of Deputy Secretary of the Society’s Supervisory Board. In the following biennium, he was Member of the Board of Directors (2017-18) and was later elected Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors (2019-22). As a representative of the PSB, he has been a member of the Education Ambassadors group at the Federation of European Societies of Biochemistry (FEBS) since 2020.
 
With the objective of fulfilling the PSB’s mission in promoting teaching and research in the area of Biochemistry and increasing its recognition at national and international level, the new direction, explains Vítor Costa, intends to “stimulate and support the organization of scientific meetings and conferences of teaching and pedagogical innovation in Biochemistry, as well as public dissemination actions on the advances and impact of Biochemistry”. “It is also our objective to involve younger people in the PSB mission, so we will create a junior section and propose their adherence to the FEBS Junior Sections initiative”, he adds.
 
In addition, “we will continue to promote the organization of joint symposiums with other national and international scientific societies, and to support the participation of members in scientific and teaching meetings, as well as the candidacy and election of Portuguese representatives to various commissions FEBS and other international federations such as IUBMB and PABMB”.
 
Vítor Costa has a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Porto and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from ICBAS. He is currently an Associate Professor at ICBAS and leads a research group at i3S. Within ICBAS he is Deputy Director of the Department of Molecular Biology, Director of the Degree in Biochemistry, and member of the Scientific Committee of the Doctoral Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology and of the Master in Environmental Toxicology and Contamination.
 
His research at i3S is part of the study of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly the role of bioactive sphingolipids and nutritional signaling pathways in the regulation of cellular processes, namely the function of organelles, homeostasis, redox, proteostasis and apoptosis, and how dysregulation These signaling networks impact cell aging and death.