Research on multiple myeloma wins National Hematology Award
The Portuguese Society of Hematology awarded the 2024 National Hematology Prize to Rui Bergantim, Clinical Hematologist at ULS São João and student of the doctoral program in Medicine and Molecular Oncology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), for his research work in area of Multiple Myeloma that he has developed at the i3S. Worth 25 thousand euros, this award aims to recognize the best research work in Hematology carried out in Portuguese institutions in the last two years.
This research project, explains Rui Bergantim, “seeks to identify biomarkers of Measurable Residual Disease (MRD) in patients with Multiple Myeloma through the study of the content of extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolated from patients’ peripheral blood samples, both at diagnosis and in remission”.
This minimally invasive and sequential monitoring of MRD, highlights Rui Bergantim, represents a “promising and potential alternative to conventional methods, and could allow more frequent monitoring of MRD throughout the treatment of this hematological neoplasia, reducing the need for invasive procedures, such as bone marrow biopsies”.
With this award Rui Bergantim intends to continue his research at i3S in the area of Multiple Myeloma, expanding the knowledge achieved with this project and improving the assessment of MRD, as well as the prediction of therapeutic response/resistance. The ultimate objective, he emphasizes, “is to translate these advances into clinical practice, with better monitoring of patients through a more effective and minimally invasive tool for assessing the prognosis in patients with Multiple Myeloma”.
Rui Bergantim's project was developed in the i3S group “Cancer Drug Resistance”, led by researcher Helena Vasconcelos, who is also an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (FFUP), and who co-supervised the work together with José Eduardo Guimarães, Retired Full Professor at FMUP. This research, explains the clinician, “benefited significantly from the collaborative efforts of several members of the i3S team in which it is part of and from the important support of the Research Innovation Unit, the i3S Office of Translational Research and Industrial Partnerships, as well as of the Clinical Hematology Service of ULS São João in Porto”.