The Tejo riverfront by the Champalimaud Foundation's open-air amphitheatre served as the backdrop for this event that saw sailors and enthusiasts gather to celebrate both history and competition.

Understanding Treatment-Resistant Depression

Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a particularly challenging form of major depressive disorder. As Albino Oliveira-Maia, head of the Champalimaud Foundation’s Neuropsychiatry Unit and the study’s national coordinator for Portugal, explains, “TRD is defined as the persistence of depressive symptoms despite adequate courses of at least two different antidepressant medications”. Despite repeated therapeutic attempts, these patients’ depressive symptoms remain.

On October 1st, people in over 150 countries across the globe will celebrate the power of music to unite and contribute towards a more peaceful, joyful, and harmonious society during International Music Day. Here at the Champalimaud Foundation, we have several budding musicians, so we asked one of them to give us some insight into combining music with science.

A side-effect “is any effect of a drug, chemical, or other medicine that is in addition to its intended effect, especially an effect that is harmful or unpleasant”. 

Why we have a brain

“The brain’s primary function is movement”, explains Claudia Feierstein, lead author of the study published today in Current Biology. “Plants don’t need a brain because they don’t move. Yet, even for something as seemingly simple as eye movements, the brain’s role remains largely enigmatic. Our goal is to illuminate this ‘black box’ of motion and to decode how neural activity controls eye and body movements, using zebrafish as our model organism”.

World Physiotherapy Day has been celebrated since 1996, but 8 September was chosen as the date because this was when World Physiotherapy (a global collective of Physiotherapists) was founded in 1951.

The day marks the unity and solidarity of the global physiotherapy community. It is also an opportunity to recognise the work that physiotherapists do for their patients and community. 

The St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group (SJEHG) has been developing its activity at the centre of three major world religions. The ongoing conflict in the region has had a severe impact on health care access and delivery.

The distinguished recipients from Portugal are Giulia Ghedini and Ilana Gabanyi from the Gulbenkian Science Institute (IGC) and Carlos Minutti of the Champalimaud Foundation. The principal investigators will be granted between €1.5-1.9M each to develop their research proposals over the next five years.

But this doesn’t mean these two areas are totally distinct. In fact, epidemiology also deals with the causes of disease. But while epidemiology involves the study of determinants and distribution of disease, aetiology attempts to confirm the causes.

Interview with António Parreira, Clinical Director of the Champalimaud Clinical Centre

Has there been an increase in the number of cancer cases? What is the reason for this?

We know that there has indeed been an increase. The question is to try to understand how we can, not only understand this phenomenon, but also, somehow, minimise its effects.

This phenomenon has to do with ageing. The development of cancers is one of the very direct consequences of ageing.