As women enter their late 30’s they tend to experience fertility decline, as well as increased risks of miscarriage and birth defects. Why does this happen? And can it be prevented, or even reversed? Researchers Zita Santos and Carlos Ribeiro of the Behaviour and Metabolism lab at Champalimaud Research have just been awarded a GCRLE Pilot Award to tackle these questions.

On a hot summer day, in a darkened chamber, a video camera follows a couple as it engages in nature’s oldest game – courtship. The male sings and chases after the female when suddenly a long tubular organ emerges from her rear end. The male recoils at first, but then returns to investigate. Is this a sign that the female is interested in moving on to the next phase, or should he try his luck elsewhere?

From schools of fish, to herds of antelope and even human societies, one of the group’s many advantages is its inherent safety. Surrounded by their peers, individuals can lower their vigilance and calmly engage in other activities, such as foraging, or watching youtube videos.

Image: Clara Ferreira

In their latest development, published today (August 24th 2020) in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the scientists at the Neuropsychiatry Unit, working in an international collaboration with colleagues from Harvard Medical School, used a novel neuroimaging method, called Lesion Network Analysis, to construct a connectivity map of brain lesions associated with mania. More precisely than ever, this map highlights the circuits connecting brain lesions that induce mania.

A balanced intake of essential amino acids is crucial to ensure the well-being and health of all animals. The essential amino acids are the building blocks of proteins but they also influence how much offspring animals produce, and what animals decide to eat.

To study how the microbiome affects their host behaviour, a group of researchers at the Behaviour & Metabolism Lab, used high-tech tools in the fruit fly to show that two gut bacteria establish a metabolic cross-feeding that enables them to grow in diets that lack the nutrients that are essential for their growth and to allow them to change host decision making and reproduction. Results reveal a mechanism through which the right combination of bacteria can lead to microbiome resiliency to dietary perturbations and changes in brain function.

In a study performed in fruit flies, a team of scientists at the Behaviour & Metabolism Lab, make a surprising discovery. Their results, published in the scientific journal Nature Metabolism, reveal that changes in the nutritional requirements of sex cells make female flies crave sugar. Until now, this phenomenon was mainly described in pathological conditions, namely cancer. Its discovery in the normal physiological process of egg formation, provides important insight into the link between fertility and nutrition.

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the list of winners of the 2020 Starting Grants. This is a highly competitive funding scheme that selects promising early-career scientists who have generated outstanding supervised work, and who have come up with exceptional research proposals.

It is commonly said that childhood experiences shape adult behaviour; that events that we may not even remember can have long-lasting, maybe even permanent effects.

The immune system protects us from attack by pathogens. Scientists have recently discovered that on some occasions the nervous system also informs the defences about infections that exist in the organism.

This dialogue between neurons and defences, known as the neuroimmune system, regulates the proper functioning of organs and protects us from illnesses, many of which have neither a clear cause nor effective treatment.