Ricardo Jorge Award jury awards i3S research on pneumonia
Researcher Joana Carvalho Pereira was recently awarded an honorable mention by the jury of the Ricardo Jorge Prize, an initiative promoted by the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA). The work focused on discovering new therapeutic targets to combat bacterial pneumonia and stood out for its “high scientific merit”.
Developed in the Cell Biology of Bacterial Infections group, the now award winning work represents part of the research conducted by Joana Carvalho Pereira during her doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS), who was guided by the group leader, Sandra Souza. Also part of the team is i3S researcher Sílvia Vale-Costa.
Bacterial pneumonia, explains now post-doctorate Joana Carvalho Pereira, “is a respiratory infection caused mainly by Streptococcus pneumoniae and causes more than 300,000 deaths annually, essentially affecting children and the elderly”. This bacteria, she adds, “causes lung damage through its pore-forming toxin, pneumolysin”.
The work submitted to the competition by the i3S researcher “explores the molecular and cellular mechanisms of resistance that host cells activate to survive the attack by this toxin”. The long-term goal, she adds, “will be to use these discoveries to develop innovative therapies to combat pneumonia by modulating these resistance mechanisms”.
This award, says Joana Carvalho Pereira, “highlights the impact of our research work on national public health. Taking into account the problem of antibiotic resistance that we face around the world, it also recognizes the importance of the strategic alternative that we propose to combat pneumonia from a more host-focused perspective”.
About the Ricardo Jorge Public Health Award
The Ricardo Jorge Public Health Award 2024 was awarded to the work developed by researchers Francisco Freitas Barcelos and Joana Moreno, called “Economic evaluation of Wolbachia deployments in the Madeira Island, as a Dengue control strategy”. The other honorable mention distinguished the research work of Ana Paula Rodrigues on the “Direct and indirect impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on mortality from all causes and specific causes in Portugal between March 2020 and December 2021”.
This award aims to contribute to the progress, promotion and recognition of research and scientific support carried out in Portugal in the area of Public Health, based on criteria such as scientific merit and relevance, the innovative nature of the work and/or the development of new methodologies, the impact on the environment and society and the potential to promote knowledge and inspire changes in Public Health.
The award and diplomas to the two honorable mentions took place on November 12th, in the auditorium of the Champalimaud Foundation, in Lisbon, during the session celebrating 125 years of INSA, organized as part of the “INSA Day” celebrations.