Despite some progress, lung cancer remains a deadly disease. This study delved into the complexities of lung cancer at a metabolic level, identifying potential treatment alternatives acting on the metabolic pathways of cysteine. Moreover, since different types of lung cancer cells showed unique ways of processing cysteine, this study emphasizes the importance of individualized approaches towards more effective and personalized cancer management.

This research project had the contribution of several LS4FUTURE partners from IPO, ITQB NOVA and NMS. Find this Antioxidants paper here.

 

iBET proudly announces that Paula Alves, iBET’s CEO and Professor at NOVA University of Lisbon (ITQB NOVA and FCT NOVA), has been distinguished with the 2024 Cell Therapies Award. This prestigious award recognizes outstanding contributions to the advancement and commercialization of cell-based therapies and is given biannually at the ECI Advancing Manufacture of Cell and Gene Therapy Conference.

Read more here.

 

          

NOVA Medical School launches Biobank of biological samples and associated clinical data, the CHAIN Biobank, which is a bank of human biological samples available to the entire scientific community for health research purposes.

This new infrastructure is a crucial tool for health research and innovation, offering a centralized repository of human biological samples such as blood and its derivatives, bone and urine, and associated clinical data. The biobank will allow for quality storage of collected samples and associated clinical data following legal, ethical, and technical guidelines to enable the reuse of samples with maximum quality.

Read more here.

 

In January, ITQB NOVA secured two main competitive awards: an €8M Horizon Europe funding for a project led by Cláudio Soares and Diana Lousa and a €150K ERC PoC grant for Cristina Silva Pereira. The Horizon Europe project EVAMOBS, the sole nationally coordinated selection in the 2023 Health Cluster call, aims to establish a platform for antiviral biopharmaceutical production, positioning Europe as a leader in responding to emerging threats. Additionally, ITQB NOVA researcher Cristina Silva Pereira received an ERC Proof of Concept Grant for her SNAIL project, focusing on suberin for innovative encapsulation technologies in food and therapeutics. More information here and here.

 

Ilana Gabanyi, an IGC researcher, was awarded an EMBO Installation Grant and is among Europe’s ten distinguished life sciences researchers, placing Portugal on the list of winners. Ilana’s project addresses in a multidisciplinary way how physiological factors determined by sex and age influence the communication mechanisms of the microbiota with the brain’s neurons. With this project, Ilana and her team want to understand the basis of communication in the gut-brain axis and contribute to new therapeutic approaches to neurological diseases with different prevalence by sex and age, in which the microbiota is a susceptibility factor, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Learn more here.