"Interdisciplinary Health Care" is the theme of the National Meeting of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Health (CIIS), which takes place at the Sintra campus of Universidade Católica, from March 31st to April 1st.  

The event is organized by the CIIS platform CatólicaMed and is intended exclusively for researchers and members of the platforms that compose the research centre, CatólicaMed, Translational Neuroscience, Nursing Research, Salivatec and Precision Dental Medicine. 

The meeting will focus on 3 themes: Translational Care, Clinical Care and Community Care. During two days, CIIS experts will share and discuss their research work. 

The papers, talks and posters, presented during the meeting, will be published in an international journal indexed to Scopus and with impact factor. Additionally, the best poster of each session will be awarded in the closing session. 

For more information contact researchlab.fm@ucp.pt or visit the website. 
 

Full Programme

Isaura Martins, a Junior Group Leader at  Católica Medical School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, was recognized with a prestigious research award by Wings for Life Foundation, a globally recognized non-profit committed to funding research aimed at finding a cure for spinal cord injuries. 

This prize highlights Isaura Martins’ groundbreaking research on the role of a subset of pericytes in spinal cord injury repair and regeneration.

“I am deeply honored to receive the Wings for Life Award” said the researcher, adding: “Spinal cord injury remains a devastating condition with limited therapeutic options and no cure. I believe that by shifting our focus into the vasculature, particularly on this subset of pericytes, we might unlock new ways to promote a better microenvironment within the spinal cord tissue, bringing us closer to fully understand this disorder and to discover new viable treatments.”

Isaura Martins started this work at the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, where the researcher did her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Leonor Saúde.

Now, at Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Saúde, Isaura Martins is spearheading this innovative study to investigate how pericytes - a specialized type of cells that wrap the blood vessels and are important for their stability - can contribute to tissue repair and functional recovery after spinal cord injury.

Recently she identified a protein that is expressed in pericytes only after injury. Her research aims now to uncover how the pericytes that express this protein, MYLIP, interact with the spinal cord's microenvironment, composed by all the cells and molecules that are important for its function and structure.

Understanding how these pericytes can affect key processes in spinal cord injury, such as inflammation, can be a promising strategy to improve natural repair mechanisms. 

The award underscores Wings for Life's mission to support pioneering research with the potential to transform the lives of millions affected by spinal cord injuries worldwide and contributed to establishing Isaura Martins’ new research group at Católica Medical School, where she intends to further explore how vascular and perivascular cells contribute for spinal cord repair after injury. 

 

Find out more about the Católica research group

Find out more about the Wings for Life Foundation

"The future of health will not only be defined by the innovations we set out to create; it will also be shaped by how we respond - and anticipate - the challenges and consequences of each major advance". It was with these words that the President of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, inaugurated the National Meeting of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health (CIIS), which was held from 31 March to 1 April at the Católica Medical School.

At this national meeting, which brought together more than a hundred researchers from all CIIS platforms and disciplines, the President noted that "the University has established a series of very demanding quantitative objectives for the production and funding of research", stressing the importance of CIIS "to interim and strengthen innovation, while boosting not only incremental innovation, but also disruptive innovation."

Meanwhile, Paulo Bettencourt, deputy director of CIIS, highlighted the importance of interdisciplinarity, the theme of the meeting, to explain the chosen methodology: "instead of grouping researchers by platform or disciplines, it was decided to create three inclusive working sessions: Translation Care; Clinical Care and Community Care."

An opportunity, according to the chair of the meeting, to "discover the latest scientific achievements of other colleagues, initiate new collaborations and plan major projects for the future, keeping in mind the main goal of improving healthcare with an interdisciplinary vision, to improve the quality of life as much as possible, with humanity and spirituality at the centre of all scientific missions."

"We are walking on the shoulders of a giant and we are fortunate to be in an institution that looks beyond the horizon and always aspires for more," António Medina de Almeida also mentioned in the opening session of the meeting.

The Dean of the Católica Medical School added that the "School is a collaborative project, with the aim of promoting quality and integration of teaching, research and medical care, through close collaboration and optimisation of the resources of its members".

Under the topic "Challenges and Opportunities For Universities in the 21st Century, -Strategy for Health Research", Tomáš Zima, professor at Charles University in Prague, spoke.

The guest speaker mentioned that "universities have to adapt and be competitive and can contribute to solutions, in a dynamic, unstable and unpredictable Era."

"Despite changes, fundamental traditional principles need to be preserved and followed, such as: Freedom of research and educational activity, as well as integrity, autonomy and independence," said Tomáš Zima.

"Universities have an impact on the well-being of society and are the driving force for change towards a better economic, social and environmental situation," he concluded.

The papers, talks and posters presented during this meeting will be published in an international journal, indexed to Scopus.