Grant awards recognizes the quality of the work of young researchers
Over the last two months, several young researchers from the i3S have seen their work recognised internationally. Winning grants, whether to present papers at leading events or to undertake internships abroad, is a unique opportunity that should be fully exploited. Some examples of grants recently won:
Internship Grant from the European Federation of Immunology
Beatriz Pereira, a PhD student in Biomedicine at FMUP, is conducting research in the “Immunology, Cancer & GlycoMedicine” group, led by Salomé Pinho. She has been awarded a grant from EFIS-Immunology Letters (EFIS-IL Short-term Fellowship) which will enable her to undertake a three-month internship in the Netherlands. The aim of her research is to utilise cutting-edge technologies to identify a new biomarker for better clinical and therapeutic monitoring of patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).
The internship, which starts in September at the Centre for Proteomics and Metabolomics (CPM) at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), will be co-supervised by the group leader, Manfred Wurher, and researcher Paul Hensbergen. In collaboration with the CPM, explains Pereira, "we will apply advanced mass spectrometry technologies to patient samples to detect and identify in detail the changes that are present in glycans (sugars) and proteins".
Two Grants to Present an Oral Communication at an International Meeting
Gabriel Oliveira, a BioTechHealth doctoral student, recently received two grants – one from the conference organisers and the other from COST Action CA21164 ADVANCE-TB – to present an oral communication on multi-resistant bacteria at the 11th International Meeting on Antimicrobial Peptides. This leading international event in the field of peptides will take place at the beginning of September at King’s College London.
Gabriel Oliveira’s PhD project, whose research is being developed in the “Host Targets of Infection” group, led by Salomé Gomes, focuses on the use of artificial intelligence models to discover small proteins, known as peptides, with the aim of treating infections caused by antibiotic-resistant non-tuberculous mycobacteria.
Travel Grant from the European Thyroid Association
Researcher Elisabete Teixeira has been awarded a travel grant to present her work on familial non-medullary thyroid cancer at the 46th Annual Meeting of the European Thyroid Association. The meeting will be held in Athens, Greece, between the 7th and 10th of September.
For Elisabete Teixeira, who is part of the “Cancer Signaling & Metabolism” group, led by Paula Soares, this opportunity to “share our results with a specialized international audience is invaluable,” she says. “In addition to the honour of presenting the project, participating in this congress will allow our team to learn from other experts, exchange ideas and bring new perspectives to advance this research”. This exchange of knowledge, she adds, “may open new doors in the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer”.
ON Foundation Grant to Present Work on Bone Regeneration
Inês Vilela de Sousa, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at FEUP, has been awarded an Education Grant by the ON Foundation. This will allow her to present her work on bone regeneration at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the European Orthopaedic Research Society (EORS), to be held in September in Aalborg, Denmark.
The young researcher will present the work she developed as part of the BiOsseoSpine project, under the supervision of researcher Cristina Barrias, leader of the “Bioengineered 3D Microenvironment” group, and researcher Marco Araújo. The work, she explains, “consisted of the development of a bioactive membrane for use as a bone substitute in posterolateral spinal fusion surgeries”.