iBB

Mónica Galocha was distinguished with the Best PhD Work in Research and Infectious Diseases by redeSAÚDE, University of Lisbon, at the 6th redeSAÚDE conference held at University of Lisboa on the 15th of November 2022. Mónica Galocha presented her research focused on unveiling new pathways of genomic evolution towards drug resistance in Candida glabrata, carried at iBB, under the supervision of Professor Miguel Cacho Teixeira.

In the interactive poster (iPoster) presented by Marta Mota  to the international conference World Microbe Forum (online conference, 20-24 June 2021), a joint initiative by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and Federation of European Microbiological Sciences (FEMS), the candidate genes and the regulatory networks involved in overcoming methanol toxicity in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae were reported. These results provide useful information to guide the genome engineering of methylotrophic yeast species, and other yeasts copying with methanol toxicity in industrial bioprocesses. This work was performed at BSRG-iBB by the PhD student of the PhD programme in Biotechnology and Biosciences Marta Mota (FCT_DP AEM fellowship) under Prof. Isabel Sá-Correia’s supervision and with the collaboration of Luís Martins, a former PhD student of the program. This iPoster was selected by ASM and by FEMS for the Outstanding Student Award.

Amin Javidanbardan won the Eppendorf Poster Award at the 6th BioProScale Symposium “Innovative scale-up and scale-down for bioprocess intensification.” The event took place virtually from 29.03. to 31.03.2021. Amin presented his poster with the title “Rapid and cost-effective fabrication of microchromatography integrated with microelectrode impedance sensor.” Amin, a Marie Curie Early-Stage Researcher of the ITN action “CODOBIO,” is enrolled in the Ph.D. program of Biotechnology and Biosciences and is being supervised by Ana Azevedo (iBB-BERG) and João Pedro Conde (INESC-MN), both from the Department of Bioengineering. Congratulations Amin!

Cláudia P. Godinho, PhD researcher at iBB-BSRG, was awarded 1st place in the “GENERAL” category of the competition “Science Communication in Microbiology”, promoted by the Portuguese Society of Microbiology (SPM) to commemorate the International Microorganism Day 2020. The competition aims to encourage and facilitate communication of relevant topics and research fields in ​​microbiology to the general public in a concise, clear and attractive way, through the presentation of an image and respective explanatory summary. The winning entry, entitled “Contribution of microbial diversity to a circular Bioeconomy”, draws attention to the role that yeast biodiversity can play in the production of a wide range of bioproducts, from agro-industrial residues.

Mariana Branco, a PhD candidate at the Stem Cell Engineering Research Group of iBB (SCERG-iBB), was awarded with the prize of best oral presentation at the 11th International Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Stem Cells and Cell Therapies (SPCE-TC) that was held during the last 11 – 13th of October at Faculdade de Farmácia of Universidade de Lisboa. The oral communication was entitled “Transcriptomic analysis of 3D cardiac differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells reveals faster maturation of cardiomyocytes compared to 2D culture”. Congratulations Mariana!

Miguel de Almeida Fuzeta from SCERG-iBB delivered an oral presentation at the Nanotechnology in Cancer: Engineering for Oncology conference, organized by the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR). At the conference, Miguel (5th from left in the picture) was awarded a travelling grant by EACR and Worldwide Cancer Research. In his presentation, entitled “Manufacturing Human Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cell (MSC)-Derived Extracellular Vesicles in Vertical-Wheel Bioreactors for Cancer Therapy” he reported his PhD work so far. The work involves a collaboration between researchers from iBB and iMM Lisboa, being supervised at IST by Prof. Cláudia Lobato da Silva and Dr. Nuno Bernardes. This conference gathered a multidisciplinary set of researchers using nanotechnology strategies for cancer therapy and diagnostics. The conference took place in Cambridge, United Kingdom on the 12-14th September.

Rita Pires won the Photography Award "A flash on chemistry", promoted by the Group of Young Chemists of the Portuguese Society of Chemistry. This Award was aimed at praising the importance of the Periodic Table and of the Chemical Elements through original photographs.

"It's not a vision of Space or any distant planet, what we see is a round-bottom flask. Pure chemistry. Inside, hydrogen builds bridges between the tentacular arms of a polyurea dendrimer. The result is fascinating, a blue, intense and intrinsic fluorescence. The rare phenomenon, also observed in nature during the aggregation of beta sheets of amyloid fibers, is explained by the delocalization of electrons through the hydrogen bonds. It is not a planet, but we travel with our gaze. Chemical elements highlighted: Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen and Carbon."

Miguel Cacho Teixeira’s was recognized in this year’s edition of the ULisboa/CGD scientific prizes. Miguel received an honorable mention for his work in the category "Biology, Biological Engineering, Biochemistry and Biotechnology". His work is focused on understanding fungal infections caused by pathogenic yeasts of the Candida genus, on a genome-wide perspective, and on using this information to improve therapeutic options. The award ceremony took place on the 28th of June.

Six iBB researchers are among the most cited top scientists at the top 2% of their areas. Portugal is represented in this list compiled by Stanford University with 385 scientists affiliated to national institutions. The rankings are based upon a researcher’s citations for both a single year (2019) and cumulative across their careers. Titled “Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators,” the list uses algorithms that quantify and systematically rank individuals into consistent scientific fields. The scores are provided  with and without self-citations to lessen the impact of self-citations or the use of citation farms (small clusters of researchers massively citing each other’s work). Ranked within the careerlong citation impact list are these iBB researchers: Joaquim Cabral, Isabel Sá-Correia, Mário Berberan Santos, Miguel Prazeres, Carla Carvalho, also along with Carina Crucho in the
2017 single-year citations list.

Teresa Cesário from BERG-iBB won one of the awards of "Mares Circulares", an iberian competition that supports projects that tackle the problem of marine waste and litter. The competition is part of the Mares Circulares wider initiative designed to preserve the oceans that was launched in 2018 by the Coca-Cola European Partners. The project submitted by Teresa is focused on the valorization of whole and residual macroalgae into bioplastics and protein ingredients. The competition was organized and coordinated by the Association Chelonia with the support of Liga para a Proteção da Natureza (LPN).

Photo: Underwater McMurdo Sound, NSF/USAP photo by Steve Clabuesch; Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Nuno Bourbon, PhD student from the BIOTECnico doctoral programme at iBB-BSRG, was awarded 1st place in the “GENERAL” category of the competition “Science Communication in Microbiology”, promoted by the Portuguese Society of Microbiology (SPM) to commemorate the International Microorganism Day 2019. The competition seeks to encourage and facilitate the communication of relevant microbiology topics to the general public in a concise and attractive fashion by asking contestants to summarise the topic in an image which, if selected, is to be published in an eBook accompanied by a short explanatory description. His entry, entitled “Microbiology of beer”, provides an overview of the main yeast and bacterium species used in brewing and how different volatile compounds arising from their metabolism can impact the flavour and aroma of this alcoholic beverage.

The research performed by Ana Azevedo and Carla Carvalho from BERG-iBB was recognized in this year's edition of the ULisboa/CGD Scientific prizes. Ana won the first prize Ex Aequo and Carla received and honorable mention for their work in the category "Biology, Biological Engineering, Biochemistry and Biotechnology". The award ceremony took place on the 8th April.