“I love talking about the molecular structure [I discovered]”, said Ardem Patapoutian, who leads a lab at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, as he was presenting his work to an audience gathered at the Champalimaud Foundation (CF), in Lisbon, last week. “It's very easy for me to talk about it when I have PowerPoint slides, but what if I'm in a restaurant or in a bar and I want to tell someone about how it works? I decided to get a tattoo of the structure and I want to share it with you.”

What drives someone to fear their own thoughts, or an Ethiopian schoolgirl to eat the wall of her house, bit by bit? Why do millions of us get stuck in loops of doubt and dread? And what does it mean to have a brain that simply won’t let go?

An international team, led by researchers at the Champalimaud Foundation (CF), has shown – for the first time in a realistic way – that it may be possible, in the future, to diagnose Parkinson’s disease (PD) years earlier, by scanning people’s brains with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Although there are treatment options after diagnosis, there is no cure.  Therapies are continually improving — with ongoing research aiming to slow or even alter the course of the disease - investing in the research of methods that enable much earlier diagnosis is crucial.

When a fruit fly is navigating straight forward at high speed, why does it know that it’s not straying off course? Because as long as the fly moves directly forward, the visual scene shifts from front to back in a near-perfect mirror image across both retinas – generating, in other words, a symmetrical visual motion pattern. This pattern, known as “optic flow”, provides a powerful cue for detecting self-motion and maintaining direction.

The conference Moving Beyond, which took place at the Champalimaud Foundation on April 3 and 4, 2025, was organised to gather world scientific leaders in the field of “exercise oncology”.

During the two-day conference, we interviewed a series of invited speakers on the benefits of physical activity for cancer prevention and treatment and asked speakers to share some of the key scientific advances in exercise oncology.

Watch the video and hear what they had to say — we hope you enjoy it!

This recognition affirms the dedication and collaborative effort of countless individuals over the years in building the diverse and sophisticated infrastructure necessary to support a world-class, cutting-edge biomedical research centre.

A New Player in Pancreatic Cancer

The team found that some pancreatic cancer cells gain a major survival edge by carrying copies of critical cancer genes—such as MYC—on circular pieces of DNA that exist outside chromosomes, the structures that house most of our genetic material. Known as ecDNA, these genetic rings float freely in the cell nucleus, enabling tumour cells to swiftly ramp up gene expression, change their shape, and survive in otherwise hostile environments.

Developed by an international consortium of 117 experts in legal, ethical, clinical, and AI domains—and featuring Champalimaud Foundation (CF) Principal Investigator Nikolas Papanikolaou—the framework provides a detailed roadmap for creating trustworthy medical AI, from the earliest design stages all the way through clinical deployment and monitoring.

It all began with a little theatre play.

Three women working in  neuroscience walk into the stage. They have to decide what will be the topic of the next Ar Event. After some discussion, they settle on the theatre. How does neuroscience explain what happens when people watch actors perform?, they want to know. So they put their white labcoats on to better think scientifically. 

Each year, the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, honours exceptional research contributions that enhance our understanding of obesity, its causes, complications, prevention, and management.