Student wins best poster award at EMBO Young Scientists’ Forum

Vanessa Teixeira, a student in the doctoral program in Molecular and Cellular Biology, carrying out research at i3S, was recently recognized at the “EMBO Young Scientists’ Forum” with the award for best poster.

Under the coordination of Reto Gassmann, leader of the “Cell Division Mechanisms” group, Vanessa Teixeira has focused her work on the complex formed by the motor protein dynein. Dynein is an essential protein for several basic functions of human cells, such as the positioning of their organelles.

Throughout her PhD, Vanessa explored and described a protein, previously never associated with dynein, as a new interactor and integral part of the dynein complex. She explains that this new interactor “is specifically associated with functions in the endoplasmic reticulum, an organelle responsible for a wide variety of essential functions in human cells such as lipid and protein synthesis and ion transport”.

At the meeting of young researchers at the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the student had the opportunity to present her doctoral work in front of a “community of highly prestigious scientists”, so having won the first prize “is a great honor”. Vanessa Teixeira also adds that “in addition to the award, having had the opportunity to meet and discuss with experts from different scientific areas was very enriching”.