i3S secures five grants from the Portuguese League Against Cancer
i3S secured five of the 16 scientific research grants in oncology awarded this year by the Portuguese League Against Cancer - Northern Regional Branch (LPCC-NRN). The funding will enable the researchers to carry out their work over the course of one year.
In the Advanced Research Grants category, awarded to five doctoral scientists, researcher Rita Carvalho was recognised for the project “Targeting VGF Signaling to Prevent Brain Colonization and Halt Established Breast Cancer Brain Metastases”. The project aims to study VGF, “a protein secreted by tumour cells that plays a crucial role in brain metastasis in breast cancer”.
The i3S Cancer Metastasis group researcher explains that “the possibility of blocking VGF as a therapeutic strategy remains largely unexplored”. Rita Carvalho therefore wants to investigate “whether modulating this biomarker and its receptors could represent a new therapeutic approach, offering fresh perspectives for treating this particularly aggressive form of the disease”.
Rita Carvalho’s grant is worth 18 thousand euros. As for the Early-Career Research Grants, i3S received four, each worth 14,400 euros.
Ana Baião, from the i3S Nanomedicines & Translational Drug Delivery group, aims to contribute to the development of new therapeutic approaches for colorectal cancer. “We will study how nanoparticle-based systems can help deliver drugs more efficiently to the tumour, reducing unwanted side effects and promoting an immune response against tumour cells,” the researcher explains.
Paulo Faria, also from the i3S “Nanomedicines & Translational Drug Delivery” group, received an Early-Career Research Grant to develop a project focused on new therapeutic strategies for glioblastoma — the most common and aggressive brain tumour in adults.
The goal, the researcher explains, is to “find a drug cocktail with a more potent antitumour effect” and to study its local administration after surgery using a biocompatible and biodegradable gel that can “increase treatment efficacy and reduce adverse side effects”.
Carla Santos, from the i3S “Genetic Diversity” group, will develop a project that seeks to address the under-representation of African ancestry in experimental cancer models. The researcher notes that sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions with the fastest-growing cancer incidence. With LPCC-NRN support, she will be able to carry out “in-depth multi-omic characterisation and high-throughput drug testing” on patient-derived cell lines to identify specific therapeutic vulnerabilities.
Another grant awarded to i3S will support the work of Beatriz Esteves, from the “Cancer Signalling & Metabolism” group, on high-grade paediatric gliomas - particularly aggressive brain tumours. The researcher aims to validate a drug screening platform based on organoids derived from paediatric patients, capable of identifying personalised therapeutic options.
“Integrating drug response data with multi-omic datasets will strengthen the value of organoids as functional predictive models and bring research closer to clinical decision-making in paediatric neuro-oncology,” the researcher underscores.
The LPCC-NRN Oncology Research Grants aim to support innovative projects in oncology, advancing scientific knowledge and improving cancer care.
