The ceremony marking the conclusion of the Botton-Champalimaud Pancreatic Cancer Centre was attended by the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, and the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

This center - resulting from a partnership between the Champalimaud Foundation and the Mauricio and Charlotte Botton couple, who contributed with 50 million euros to its construction - is the first in the world simultaneously dedicated to the research and treatment of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest types of cancer.

The kids appeared on the screen one square at a time. In the beginning, almost all the squares were black, excluding the ones of the teachers, who welcomed each new arrival alternating between "good morning" and "bom dia". First meetings are always a bit awkward, especially over zoom, but then, as soon as Danbee Kim, a former doctoral student at Champalimaud Foundation and one of the creators of Neuronautas, asked everyone to turn their cameras on, the screen suddenly lit up with the faces of the 2021 Class. 

Monday, 9 a.m.. A small group of basic science researchers from the Champalimaud Foundation and other people working at the Foundation who are interested in bridging the gap between science and medicine is scheduled for a “medical class” via Zoom (due to pandemic restrictions) with Pedro Marvão, their tutor in a new course called Fundamentals of Medicine. In one week, they will have to “solve”, together, a clinical case. They will do this, week after week, with a series of other cases. 

What does physiotherapy have to do with cancer?

“Physiotherapy is an integral part of the cancer treatment and recovery plan: it promotes the patients’ life quality and overall sense of well-being by restoring movement, function and strength.” - Champalimaud Foundation Physiotherapy Team.

Eugenia Chiappe, Principal Investigator of the Sensorimotor Integration Research Group at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal is standing in her office. There is a door, maybe three metres away, and the floor is flat and clear. Eugenia, who intends to walk in a straight line to the door, takes a second to measure the distance and the terrain. She closes her eyes, walks four steps forward, and bumps into a chair to her right. 

In October 2020, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in partnership with Ashoka Portugal, launched Young Transformers in Portugal: Gulbenkian 25<25 Challenge, an initiative aimed at supporting young people (<25 years old) from the Gulbenkian Knowledge Academies network in the development of ideas to solve problems in their communities to build a better future.

For the seventh episode of the Zoom-In series, meet Laura Fernandez, a surgeon at the Digestive Unit. Curious about Laura’s work? Check out our website here and you can also find out more about Laura's latest work on the Watch&Wait protocol - a non-invasive approach to rectal cancer treatment.

Obesity has been linked to no less than 13 cancers, including the two most prevalent (breast and colorectal), as well as to cardiovascular disease, which remains a leading cause of death worldwide. 

For the sixth episode of the Zoom-In series, meet Tatiana Silva, a PhD Student at the Champalimaud Foundation's Neural Circuits and Behaviour lab. Curious about Tatiana’s work? Check out her lab.