PhD student receives funding to present research in the USA

Vanessa Teixeira, a student on the MCBiology PhD programme at UPorto, currently researching at the i3S, was recently awarded an EMBO Travel grant to participate in Cell Bio 2024, the joint meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO). This will take place in San Diego, USA, from the 14th to the 18th of December.

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-1, which is essential for several basic functions of human cells, such as the organisation and distribution of their organelles.

The work that the PhD student will present in the USA describes a new dynein-interacting protein that establishes its recruitment to the endoplasmic reticulum, an organelle responsible for a wide range of essential functions in human cells.

Vanessa Teixeira explains that her work describes “new molecular interactions that involve dynein in the organisation of the endoplasmic reticulum, and which were previously unknown. Furthermore, this protein - which we now know is capable of interacting with dynein - is also associated with a neurodegenerative disease, and the molecular mechanism that I present may be related to its development.”

Being present at this conference in the United States will allow the PhD student to showcase the work she has developed throughout her PhD “at one of the largest events in the field of Molecular and Cellular Biology”. Furthermore, she adds, “I will have the opportunity to interact personally with a vast scientific community and establish contacts that will be useful for my present and future.”