Luísa V. Lopes

Luisa Lopes is a neuroscientist, she coordinates a research group at Instituto de Medicina Molecular and Invited Professor of Neurosciences at Lisbon School of Medicine. She graduated in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and later got her PhD in Neurosciences at Lisbon School of Medicine. She worked at Cambridge University in the UK and at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden during her PhD. In 2003, she joined the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, as a postdoctoral neuroscientist, before returning to Lisbon, where from 2008 she established her own research team, and in 2013 and 2018 obtained Researcher positions from the Foundation for Science and Technology. Her work focuses on synaptic mechanisms of aging, impacting memory; and on the development of animal models to study cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration. She has published over 60 articles and book chapters in international scientific journals, including leading journals in the area, such as Nature Neuroscience, Science Immunology or Molecular Psychiatry and has PhD'd 8 students in her team. She belongs to several Portuguese and international scientific societies, with emphasis on having been a member of the Board of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience between 2008 and 2011. She is a member of the Scientific Council of Lisbon School of Medicine and the coordination team of the MSc in Biomedical Research. She is also responsible for the Center of the American Society for Neuroscience in Lisbon (SFN Lx Chapter). In 2017 she received an honorable mention from the University of Lisbon for her scientific curriculum in Biomedicine, in 2018 the Mantero Belard Award - Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, in 2020 the Pfizer award in Biomedical Research, and in 2021 the Interstellar Initiative Award for "Healthy Aging and Longevity" from the New York Academy of Sciences. In 2021 she got her Agregação (portuguese habilitation) in Neurosciences from Lisbon School of Medicine.