Osteosarcoma study wins innovation award at iMed Conference® 15

Sofia Costa, a master’s student in the Applications in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology program at FCUP, and working in the Nanomedicines & Translational Drug Delivery group, recently won the Innovate Competition at the iMed Conference® 15.0 in the basic research category. The prize, worth one thousand euros, was awarded by the AstraZeneca Foundation to the best presentation in poster format.

The student is working on an in vitro tool to study new therapies for osteosarcoma, a rare type of tumor, through the development of heterotypic multicellular spheroids. The research takes place in the context of the B2Tek-4OS project (Bio-inspired and Bioengineered Technology for OSteosarcoma – unraveling OS to advance in novel targeted therapies), funded by the Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro (Bolsas em Sarcomas Pediatricos Nonô) and led by Researcher Catarina Leite Pereira.

For Sofia Costa, this distinction is “extremely gratifying”, as it recognizes the importance of developing 3D in vitro models, such as pre-clinical models in the area of cancer as an alternative to in vivo models. In this way, the student emphasizes, “we are contributing to the reduction of animal experimentation, which is always fundamental when developing new therapies”.

Furthermore, with this scholarship, the student will have the opportunity to enroll in advanced courses in her area of research and participate in national/international conferences. On a personal level, she adds, “it is also a strong motivation to continue my journey in research and be able to contribute to the advancement of science, particularly in the study of a tumor as rare as osteosarcoma”.

About the iMed Conference Innovate Competition

The iMed Conference® is an annual event organized by the Nova Medical School Student Association | Faculty of Medical Sciences (AENMS) which aims to introduce the next generation of life sciences students to the latest scientific discoveries and innovative projects in the field of medicine.

The Innovate Competition is a competition aimed at Bachelor’s or Master’s students in the area of Life Sciences integrated into a research team, who are challenged to present their project to a renowned jury. The project can be either basic research or translational research.