The Biomedical Research Centre of the Católica Medical School is co-organizing the SymbNET PhD Summer School on Host-Microbe Symbioses, which will take place from July 2 to 15, at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Oeiras.

This Summer School aims to train the next generation of researchers in host-microbe symbioses. Over two weeks, 22 professors and 35 international PhD students will discuss the subject, as well as develop new research projects and promote new research dynamics.

Luís Teixeira, professor and researcher at the Católica Medical School and the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, is part of the scientific organizing committee and will join the panel of international speakers at the event.

PhD students may apply to participate in this Summer School by submitting a motivation letter, CV and a reference letter from their supervisor until March 20th.
 

More Information  |  Check the poster  |  Sign up here

The Católica Biomedical Research Centre (CBR), the new research centre of Católica Medical School, was inaugurated on October 24, on the campus of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência Campus.

According to Pedro Simas, director of the CBR, the new centre will "develop fundamental, multidisciplinary biomedical research, guided by the interests of its researchers". This is driven by "talented researchers who combine innovative technologies that unite medicine, biology and engineering, with the aim of understanding complex systems and finding solutions to current and future social challenges, both in terms of human health and the planet", he emphasised.

Also in the words of the President of Católica, Isabel Capeloa Gil, "the CBR is a contribution to Portugal's competitiveness in science and was created to make a difference". And in this sense, the CBR is part of an ecosystem that aspires to promote human health through research and innovation in teaching and medical practice.

Regarding the new research centre, the Director of Católica Medical School, António de Almeida, says that "in order to train doctors for the medicine of the future, with an inquisitive and critical culture, mastery of the scientific method and close collaboration with researchers is essential".

In cooperation with the Católica Medical School, Hospital da Luz Lisboa and União das Misericórdias Portuguesas, the CBR is participating in the first non-governmental Clinical Academic Centre (CAC) in Portugal - the CAC Católica-Luz.

The CBR is currently based on the campus of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, in Oeiras, to benefit from its privileged research environment, highly qualified resources and specialised infrastructures, in a collaboration between Universidade Católica and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Created in 2021, the CBR currently has eight research groups led by researchers Cláudio Franco, Luís Teixeira, Maria João Amorim, Raquel Oliveira, Pedro Simas, Sara Silva Pereira, José Lourenço and João Raimundo, who study the most diverse aspects of biomedicine, from infection and immunity, epidemiology, angiogenesis, regulation of gene expression and cell division, among others.

The commitment to diverse lines of research will allow to analyse and solve complex problems using complementary approaches. The current researchers have competitive national and international funding, namely from various European Commission programmes (including several European Research Council grants), the La Caixa Foundation, the US National Institutes of Health and the Foundation for Science and Technology. Over a period of 10 years, CBR hopes to bring together a total of 20 leading researchers.

In close collaboration with Oeiras City Council, the CBR is establishing a strong relationship with society, namely with students and secondary school teachers in the municipality, and playing an active role in building scientific and health literacy skills in the general population.

Fotografia de Grumpy Panda 

Biomedical research is entering a new era with the integration of Network Science and Complex Systems, a field that applies advanced computational techniques to decipher the complexity of biological and artificial data at the most varied scales and dimensions.

Universidade Católica Portuguesa's (UCP) Biomedical Research Centre (CBR) has just positioned itself at the forefront of this revolution by securing 2.5 million euros from the European Commission to fund its innovative CBeRa, an ERA Chair in Network and Complex Systems Science applied to health data. This investment marks a crucial moment for the CBR and the future of biomedical research in Portugal and Europe.

The CBeRa: Strategic Integration of Complex Networks and Systems for Advancing Biomedical Research project was conceived to tackle one of the main challenges of modern biomedical research: the vastness and complexity of the data generated by state-of-the-art experimental methods. Traditional laboratory techniques, while essential, often cannot keep up with the rapid expansion of biological data, much of which remains underutilised.

‘This is where the science of networks and complex systems comes into play,’ explains Pedro Simas, Director of the CBR. ‘It provides the tools needed to uncover hidden patterns, understand the intricate relationships between components and nodes of biological systems, and detect emergent behaviours and properties that other methods cannot identify. These computational analysis techniques hold great promise for the development of predictive models that could revolutionise the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases.’

Luís Rocha, a world-renowned researcher in complex systems and computational intelligence at the State University of New York, will lead the CBeRa project. ‘CNS science is closely correlated with Artificial Intelligence, computer science and data science,’ explains Luís, who will lead this five-year ERA Chair project at the CBR from March 2025.

‘By studying the organisation, dynamics and properties at different scales of complex systems networks and from the molecular to the global scale, we can discern emerging patterns and unforeseen connections, and understand the subtle nuances that govern domains ranging from how a cell functions to speech patterns and social interactions, to the determinants of health and disease,’ adds the researcher.

Funding for the ‘ERA Chairs’ comes from the Horizon Europe Widening Programme, designed to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA). The ERA Chairs aim to provide award-winning institutions with the resources they need to attract top international talent, starting with the chair's coordinator, and help them build a team of excellence capable of significantly improving their scientific performance in the research field.

In 2023, the total budget allocated to ERA Chairs by the European Commission was 97 million euros; out of 38 approved projects, eight were awarded to universities and research institutes in Portugal. The CBR, created in 2021, is one of the youngest national institutions to receive this competitive funding.

The L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women Scientists aim to promote the position of women in science by recognising outstanding researchers who have contributed to scientific progress. Sara Silva Pereira, a researcher at the Católica Biomedical Research Centre (CBR), is one of the 4 awarded this distinction in 2024.

The L'Oréal Portugal Medals of Honor are awarded by a jury of internationally renowned experts who, with this award, distinguish and encourage some of the youngest and most promising scientists at the beginning of their careers in Portugal. Among dozens of candidates, a jury chaired by Alexandre Quintanilha chose, in addition to Sara, 3 other young female scientists working in national institutions: Cláudia Deus, from the Multidisciplinary Institute of Aging at the University of Coimbra; Laetitia Gaspar, from the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the University of Coimbra; and Mariana Osswald, from i3S of the University of Porto. Sara Silva Pereira is the Head of CBR´s Parasite vascular interactions Laboratory, which studies the Trypanosoma parasite and its interactions with the mammalian host´s blood vessels.

Sara Silva Pereira, 30 years old, young researcher at CBR, the Biomedical Research Center of the Portuguese Catholic University´s Medical School, has been awarded the L´Oréal Portugal Medal of Honor. The prize award ceremony took place at the Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisboa, on June 5th 2024.

Sara and her group at the CBR want to understand how parasites interact with tissues in different parts of the body, causing serious diseases in animals and humans. Sara proposes to develop three-dimensional models of various organs and tissues from different animal species - such as the brain, heart or adipose tissue - that imitate the microscopic environments of real tissues, in a controlled fashion, to be able to study in detail several parasitic diseases that affect humans and animals. “In our laboratory we already have an artificial vasculature model that we use to study the way in which some parasites attach themselves to our blood vessels. We plan to adapt it to make it more complex and versatile, applicable to new contexts.”

Research in Sara´s group focuses specifically on Trypanosoma congolense, a tropical parasite that infects cattle, and can generate a very serious acute brain disease, due to the interaction of the parasites with a specific type of immune system cells – CD4+ T cells. “We are going to develop a model or system that imitates the blood-brain barrier of cattle, so that we can investigate how disease develops and, with this information, we will try to discover ways to treat it or, at least, reduce its severity.”

But Sara and her team don’t plan to stop there. They intend to extend their observations to parasites from the same family – the Trypanosomatidae family, protozoa responsible for various diseases in animals and zoonoses, such as Leishmaniasis, Sleeping sickness and Chagas disease. The objective is to increase what is known about the behavior of parasites and the responses of hosts – human and non-human – in the context of numerous parasitic diseases, including those that reach humans through contact with infected animals (zoonoses). Zoonoses have an impact on human health that is particularly relevant in areas where there is a close connection between humans and animals, such as in agrarian economies or in places with a strong livestock industry. An interesting case is that of canine leishmaniasis, an incurable disease that constitutes a public health problem in Portugal. A 2021 study on Leishmania seroprevalence and risk factors, estimated that 12.5% ​​of dogs in Portugal are infected with this parasite, almost double the 6.3% found in 2009. Although dogs do not directly infect humans, transmission can be done through from the bite of mosquitoes that previously bit infected dogs and carried the parasite with them.

On the occasion of its 60th anniversary, the Federation of European Biochemistry Societies (FEBS) launched the FEBS Booster Fund, a new funding scheme to support projects led by newly independent academic researchers. Sara Silva Pereira, a junior Group Leader and head of the Parasite Vascular Interactions laboratory at the CBR, is one of the FEBS Booster Fund 2024 grantees.

Sara´s research focuses on how parasites survive in their hosts as, according to Sara, “understanding parasite survival mechanisms is essential to the development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics”.  At CBR, where Sara is a principal investigator (PI) since September 2023, she studies how Trypanosoma parasites interact with the vasculature of their mammalian hosts in complex and varied ways, leading to a range of disease outcomes, collectively known as animal African trypanosomiasis. To gain insight into these fascinating themes, Sara and her team employ high-resolution and big-data systems and combine computational and cellular biology approaches with bioengineering tools. “The first few years as an independent researcher are make or break, so all help is very welcome. This grant will allow me to partially support our research costs – says Sara.

The FEBS Booster Fund is designed to help early-career scientists to develop their own independent research by awarding them a one-off grant of €25,000 for 1 year, to spend on small equipment and consumables and research-based travel while developing a novel research project. As the name implies, the FEBS Booster fund aims to provide a much-needed boost to newly independent researchers, including early PIs such as Sara, who typically have limited funds available to undertake research at present but show great potential. This €25,000 Fund aims to help grantees publish papers or generate data, allowing them to consolidate their independence and eventually improve their chances of securing larger grants from funding agencies.

The FEBS Booster Fund scheme first opened in 2024, is envisaged to award up to 25 grants per year, and is expected to run for three annual calls, until 2026.

The new study, led by Gulbenkian researchers and published in eLife, describes how we can interfere with the assembly of the influenza A virus’ genome to control the flu. The finding lays the foundations for innovative antiviral therapies against seasonal influenza, as well as infections that develop similarly. Examples include COVID-19, Ebola, mumps, measles, and respiratory syncytial virus infections.

Despite current surveillance and vaccination strategies, the influenza A virus continues to kill up to 600 thousand people yearly. Understanding what this virus needs to multiply inside our bodies is essential to define new strategies to fight infection. To win a battle, we must know our enemy.

After entering our cells, viruses take advantage of their machinery to multiply. This task is particularly complex for the influenza A virus, given that its genome has eight different segments that must assemble in a single complex. The group Maria João Amorim leads at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) and the Católica Biomedical Research Centre (CBR) was the first to propose, in a previous study, that this virus assembles its genome in cell compartments that they called “viral inclusions”. To fulfill their purpose, these inclusions need to be liquid.

Now, the researchers realized that it is possible to alter the properties of these viral inclusions to limit infection. “We studied how these structures behave when exposed to changes in temperature or interactions, for instance”, Temitope Etibor, PhD student at the IGC and first author of the study, explains. “These alterations make viral inclusions stiffer, affecting their behavior”, he adds. This liquid-to-solid transition compromised viral infection in both cells and mice lungs.

“This study provides a starting point for understanding how to attack a completely different target in viral infections”, the principal investigator Maria João Amorim remarks. The results speak for themselves: the best way to harden these inclusions is to increase the number and strength of interactions among the viral genome segments inside. If we want to sabotage these virus’ “assembly factories” and limit infection, we should focus on developing molecules with this effect. Another point in favor of this strategy is that it does not have toxic effects on the host.

Manipulating the properties of these compartments that concentrate important molecules and carry out specialized functions inside cells is a promising strategy to treat infections, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer. Thus, these new data could be the piece that was missing to start a new era in disease treatment.

 

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