One scholarship from the Bill Gates Foundation, another from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Crioestaminal Prize, an Installation Grant scholarship and a Young Investigator scholarship from EMBO in one month
Four researchers from the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, were honoured with five prestigious awards in just one month: four international and one national.
Miguel Prudêncio, of the Malaria Unit, was granted a scholarship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Tiago Outeiro, director of the Cell and Molecular Neuroscience Unit won a scholarship from the Michel J. Fox Foundation; Luísa Figueiredo, director of the Parasite Molecular Genetics Unit, won the Criostaminal Prize and an Installation Grant from the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO); and Bruno Silva Santos, director of the Molecular Immunology Unit, was elected Young Investigator, also by EMBO.
OResearcher Miguel Prudêncio will receive $100.000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a 6-18 month period, which can be extended to 1 million, if the project proves successful at its initial stage. Miguel Prudêncio, Maria Mota and their team at IMM propose to develop a vaccine against malaria using a parasite that just infects rodents and does not cause any disease in human beings, but which can be genetically modified in order to activate the human immune system and teach it to fight the malaria parasite that infects humans when it finds it.
Researcher Tiago F. Outeiro won a Rapid Response Innovation Award from the American Michael J. Fox Foundation to study the contribution of genetic deregulation in the development of Parkinson’s disease. This is the second time Tiago F. Outeiro is awarded this prize, which funds innovative research projects focusing on the origin or treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Luísa Figueiredo received an Installation Grant scholarship from EMBO, and the Criostaminal 2010 Prize for the work carried out in the identification of mechanisms that control the genes responsible for the transmission of the parasite that causes Sleeping Disease, Trypanosoma brucei. This disease affects about 30.000 people in Africa, the only continent where it exists, and can be fatal if untreated. It is characterised by a sudden and uncontrollable urge to sleep, and is transmitted through the bite of the tsetse fly infected by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei.
Bruno Silva Santos was the only Portuguese chosen to receive the Young Investigator scholarship awarded by EMBO, as part of an application process with a success rate of about 15%.
This award means international recognition of the quality of the research carried out by Bruno Silva-Santos, and comes as part of previous awards: in 2006, Bruno Silva Santos was the first Portuguese to win an EMBO Installation Grant, and he was recently chosen for a prestigious scholarship awarded by the European Research Council (ERC). The award that has now been granted will translate into a series of incentives, over a period of 3 years, to the research Bruno Silva-Santos is coordinating at the Molecular Immunology Unit of the IMM.
According to Maria do Carmo Fonseca, Executive Director of IMM, “the various awards that IMM researchers have received attest that we are at the forefront of biomedical research”. “In the difficult times that the country is going through, this recognition has an even more relevant meaning”, she concludes.
Communication and Training Unit,
Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon
ucom@fm.ul.pt
Four researchers from the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, were honoured with five prestigious awards in just one month: four international and one national.
Miguel Prudêncio, of the Malaria Unit, was granted a scholarship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Tiago Outeiro, director of the Cell and Molecular Neuroscience Unit won a scholarship from the Michel J. Fox Foundation; Luísa Figueiredo, director of the Parasite Molecular Genetics Unit, won the Criostaminal Prize and an Installation Grant from the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO); and Bruno Silva Santos, director of the Molecular Immunology Unit, was elected Young Investigator, also by EMBO.OResearcher Miguel Prudêncio will receive $100.000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a 6-18 month period, which can be extended to 1 million, if the project proves successful at its initial stage. Miguel Prudêncio, Maria Mota and their team at IMM propose to develop a vaccine against malaria using a parasite that just infects rodents and does not cause any disease in human beings, but which can be genetically modified in order to activate the human immune system and teach it to fight the malaria parasite that infects humans when it finds it.
Researcher Tiago F. Outeiro won a Rapid Response Innovation Award from the American Michael J. Fox Foundation to study the contribution of genetic deregulation in the development of Parkinson’s disease. This is the second time Tiago F. Outeiro is awarded this prize, which funds innovative research projects focusing on the origin or treatment of Parkinson’s disease.Luísa Figueiredo received an Installation Grant scholarship from EMBO, and the Criostaminal 2010 Prize for the work carried out in the identification of mechanisms that control the genes responsible for the transmission of the parasite that causes Sleeping Disease, Trypanosoma brucei. This disease affects about 30.000 people in Africa, the only continent where it exists, and can be fatal if untreated. It is characterised by a sudden and uncontrollable urge to sleep, and is transmitted through the bite of the tsetse fly infected by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei.Bruno Silva Santos was the only Portuguese chosen to receive the Young Investigator scholarship awarded by EMBO, as part of an application process with a success rate of about 15%.This award means international recognition of the quality of the research carried out by Bruno Silva-Santos, and comes as part of previous awards: in 2006, Bruno Silva Santos was the first Portuguese to win an EMBO Installation Grant, and he was recently chosen for a prestigious scholarship awarded by the European Research Council (ERC). The award that has now been granted will translate into a series of incentives, over a period of 3 years, to the research Bruno Silva-Santos is coordinating at the Molecular Immunology Unit of the IMM.
According to Maria do Carmo Fonseca, Executive Director of IMM, “the various awards that IMM researchers have received attest that we are at the forefront of biomedical research”. “In the difficult times that the country is going through, this recognition has an even more relevant meaning”, she concludes.
Communication and Training Unit,
Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon
ucom@fm.ul.pt
