Last April 23, Ciências ULisboa celebrated its 113th anniversary. The celebrations included a ceremony full of distinctions, tributes and a review of the past year. The research and innovation developed at the faculty were not forgotten. Get to know the BioISI researchers distinguished within this event: Ciências’ Day.  

After the review of the main achievements reached by Ciências ULisboa students, staff, professors and researchers, during the 2023, and a talk by Virgínia Dignum, expert in Artificial Intelligence, it was time to get to know the awardees of the 1st edition of the Innovation Projects Call (promoted jointly by Ciências ULisboa and FCiências.ID). Here we highlight the TAMUK – Targeting Mutated KRAS Project, coordinated by Andreia Valente (CQE Researcher) and Paulo J. Costa, Group Leader of BioISI’s Computational Chemistry and Molecular Interactions Lab, which addresses a molecule that inhibits the most common mutations of KRAS (Kirsten rat sarcoma virus), giving hope where clinical options for cancer treatment are limited.

From left to right: Andreia Valente and Paulo J. Costa [Andreia Valente’s photo credits: CQE]

When it comes to the distinction of the students that recognize the excellence of the students in the last academic year, BioISI junior researchers were also on the list. Maria Paes, currently MSc. student from the Fruit Functional Genomics & Biotechnology Lab, was awarded with the Aralab Award for the best student in the MSc in Plant Resources Biology, whilst David Correia, MSc. student from the Systems approaches for personalized medicine Lab was distinguished with the Max Data award for the best student in the MSc. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Additionally, Francisco Duarte, presently a MSc Student from the Computational Biophysics Lab was the second best student of the 3rd year of the Chemistry BSc.  while João Oliveira was the fourth best student in the 3rd grade of the Biochemistry BSc.

From left to right: Maria Paes, David Correia, Francisco Duarte and João Oliveira

At last but not the least, Andreia Figueiredo, group leader of the Grapevine-Pathogen Systems Lab and Marta Sousa Silva, researcher from the FT-ICR and Structural Mass Spectrometry Lab were distinguished with an honorable mention for their excellence in teaching.

From left to right: Andreia Figueiredo and Marta Sousa Silva

Know more about this year’s Ciências’ Day here.