iMed.ULisboa researchers Professor João Gonçalves, Professor Dora Brites and Ana Rita Vaz are part of the Portuguese researchers awardees of “la Caixa” Banking Foundation, for their collaboration in the projects Protecting the brain from metastatic breast cancer and Targeting TDP-43 with protein kinase inhibitors: a effective and measurable therapy for ALS.

Protecting the brain from metastatic breast cancer is coordinated by Professor Doctor Miguel Castanho of Instituto de Medicina Molecular in collaboration with iMed.ULisboa (coordinated by João Gonçalves), the Biodonostia Health Research Institute and Asociación Centro de Investigación Cooperativa en Biomateriales in Spain. This project, co-financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, aims to investigate the design of a drug, inspired by antibodies, capable of reaching the breast and brain avoiding resistance to chemotherapy due to blood-brain barrier, and the presence of stem cells that cause cell division and metastasis.

You can read more about the project, here.

Targeting TDP-43 with protein kinase inhibitors: a effective and measurable therapy for ALS is led by Ana Martinez of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in collaboration with iMed.ULisboa (coordinated by Dora Brites and Ana Rita Vaz), the Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), and the IMDEA – Instituto de Nanociência de Espanha. This project, co-financed by Fundación Luzón, aims on finding new therapeutic strategies to treat Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with special focus on the role of TDP-43 protein in the neurons of patients with ALS.

You can read more about the project here.