U.Porto's researcher of the year belongs to i3S

Hélder Maiato is the winner of the second edition of the University of Porto's Scientific Research Excellence Award, the annual award established by the University with the objective of recognizing its professors and scientists who stand out most in the field of scientific research.

Hélder Maiato, 43, is one of the coordinators of the Cancer Integrative Program at i3S, where he also leads the Chromosome Instability & Dynamics research group. He has a degree in Biochemistry (1998) and a doctorate in Biomedical Sciences from U. Porto. Author of more than 100 scientific publications, it is at Porto that he has distinguished himself internationally in the study of the cellular division, in particular the forces responsible for the movement of the chromosomes during this process, whose understanding has been fundamental to understand numerous diseases, namely cancer.

Among the many awards he has received throughout his career are ERC Starting Grant (2010) and ERC Consolidator Grant (2015), both awarded by the European Research Council (ERC). He was also awarded several national and international prizes and funding, including the Portuguese Society of Human Genetics Award (2004), the Gulbenkian Program for Stimulating Research (2005), the Robert Colinas Prize (2005), the Crioestaminal Prize (2007), the Calouste Gulbenkian Frontiers of Life Sciences Program (2007), the Human Frontiers Science Program (2010), the Louis-Jeantet Young Investigator Career Award (2015), FLAD Lifescience 2020 (2015) and others.

It’s this successful path that the University of Porto rewarded with five thousand euros, "in recognition of the contribution and effort developed [by Hélder Maiato] in creating new knowledge, producing scientific publications and raising funding for activities research".

For the researcher, this distinction is "kind of an accumulated prize", since "it rewards the continued work of a team that had more than 40 people who have passed through my laboratory in the last 15 years". And if it is not the most valuable prize that has been won, Hélder Maiato does not hide that it is one of the most special: "Being recognized by my University is an important level of recognition of our work within our institute and our closest peers. I’m pleased because it’s been our goal since we began our work at Porto to raise the name and visibility of U. Porto internationally". About the course he has been developing at U.Porto, the professor at the Medical School (since 2005) highlights his "happiness" of having found "the right people, like Prof. Alexandre Quintanilha, Prof. Claudio Sunkel, Prof. Clara Sambade and Prof. Deolinda Lima, who opened the doors of the University and made it possible for us to do our work here without any complex of inferiority with what is best done in the world". And he notes with certainty: "I would not trade my place for anything or anywhere in the world. I'm here with all my heart and soul and I feel at home!" Believing that "research and the search for new knowledge is what distinguishes one university from any other school” the researcher points out that “there is still a lot to be done in integrating the research that is done in the interface institutes with their own faculties". And he points the way: "We have to abandon our small identities because in fact all this is the University of Porto and this should be our calling card to the world. When I go to a conference abroad, people do not say that I come from institute A or college B, but from the University of Porto". In parallel to laboratory research, Hélder Maiato regularly serves as a reviewer for the most prestigious scientific journals and funding agencies around the world and has performed various external evaluations and editorial functions over the years. Between 2012 and 2015, he also served as National Counselor for Science and Technology of the Portuguese Prime Minister and in 2016 he was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Since 2015 he has been leading another project - Yscience - whose mission is to promote scientific education in children. Promoted by the U. Porto Vice-Rectory for Research, Innovation and Internationalization, the University of Porto Award for Excellence in Scientific Research was created in 2018 with the purpose of recognizing and encouraging the participation of U. Porto professors and researchers in scientific research projects that are distinguished by their degree of excellence and impact. The first edition of the award was won by Adelino Leite Moreira, Full Professor at the Medical School.