Paula Soares wins University of Porto Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research
Researcher Paula Soares, leader of the “Cancer Signalling and Metabolism” group and Associate Professor at the FMUP (Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto), has won the University of Porto Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research 2025, in the Health and Life Sciences category. The award aims to recognize the professors and researchers of the University of Porto who have stood out most in the last five years in the fields of scientific production and fundraising for scientific research activities.
“I am extremely honoured by this distinction, which represents the recognition of a career that I have mostly pursued at the University of Porto, where I have always found the necessary conditions and stimulus to develop my research”, stated Paula Soares. For the researcher, “it is a great honour and joy to be able to share this moment with all my colleagues, master’s and doctoral students, and researchers who, over the years, have passed through the Cancer Signalling and Metabolism research group, contributing in various ways to its success”.
As it is a recognition from the University of Porto, Paula Soares emphasises, “this prize has a special significance, as it was here that I completed all my training and found the ideal institutions to virtuously combine an excellent teaching activity such as that of the FMUP, with the necessary conditions for continuous research activity, which I first found at Ipatimup and currently at i3S”. This prize, she adds, “is also an opportunity to express my profound gratitude to the mentors and inspiring figures I have been fortunate enough to encounter, such as Professor Sobrinho-Simões and my late friend Raquel Seruca”.
After seven editions with a single winner, this year’s award – with a total value of 30,000 euros – will be distributed among six scientists – selected from 45 candidates – in four different areas: Arts and Humanities; Health and Life Sciences; Exact Sciences, Engineering and Technologies; and Social Sciences.
The presentation of the University of Porto Prize for Scientific Excellence 2025 took place on 24 March, during the Solemn Commemorative Session of University Day 2025.
About Paula Soares
With a degree in Biology from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and a bachelor’s degree in Pathological Anatomy, Cytological and Thanatological Sciences from the Porto School of Health Services Technology, Paula Soares began her professional career as a laboratory technician and secondary school teacher. In 1990, she embarked on a research career at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto (Ipatimup), obtaining a Master’s in Oncobiology and a PhD in Human Biology from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP). In 2001, she returned to the FMUP as an Assistant Professor of Biopathology, the institution where she is currently an Associate Professor with Habilitation. In 2003, she began coordinating the “Cancer Biology” research group at Ipatimup, which, in 2015, with the integration of Ipatimup into the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health of the University of Porto (i3S), was renamed “Signalling and Metabolism of Cancer”. At this institute, Paula Soares is also a member of the i3S Scientific Council, scientific coordinator of the “Histology and Electron Microscopy” (HEMS) platform, and works as a consultant at Ipatimup Diagnostics in the area of genetic diagnosis of endocrine pathology. She is also part of the steering committee of the Thyroid Tumours Group of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and was on the steering committee of the European Thyroid Association (ETA).
Paula Soares is the author of more than 300 articles and has led several funded national and international projects. She is a member of several national and international scientific societies and is a member of various evaluation boards and editorial boards of scientific journals.
The research group led by Paula Soares at i3S focuses on the identification of the molecular mechanisms of human cancer with potential applications in early diagnosis, prognosis determination, and selection of specific therapies, using thyroid neoplasms and other (neuro)endocrine tumours as preferred models. Together with the researchers who are part of her group, she has already won more than 20 prizes and distinctions. Her curriculum also includes a national patent, an international patent, and a spin-off company that developed a non-invasive test for the detection of bladder cancer.