The CaixaResearch Health Research Contest 2022 has selected 33 promising new biomedical and health projects promoted by research centres and universities in Spain and Portugal. Once again affirming that the “la Caixa” Foundation, in collaboration with BPI, supports projects of excellence that can have a positive impact on the health of citizens. 

Within this framework, it has allocated a total of 23.1 million euros to such projects – 20 Spanish and 13 Portuguese – that will be developed over the next three years. 

The statistics for pancreatic cancer are sobering. With a five-year survival rate of only 9%, incidence of the most common type, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), is growing and projected to be the second cause of cancer deaths by 2030. Surgery remains the most effective treatment, yet for 70-80% of patients, surgery is not a viable option. Understanding pancreatic cancer at the cellular and subcellular level is essential for developing therapies that can buy patients more time.
 

To know more about this research:

Digest

Scientific Article

One of the hallmarks of multiple myeloma (MM), a cancer of the bone marrow and one of the most frequent haematological cancers worldwide, is the disruption of the patients’ immune system, which allows the cancer to progress. Now, a study performed by Cristina João, who leads the Myeloma and Lymphoma Research Group at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, and her colleagues, shows how so-called extracellular vesicles (EV’s) released by multiple myeloma cells can drive the disruption of the immune system.

To know more about this research:

Digest

Scientific Article

Funded by the MCSA & Citizens action - RAISE is built around a concept of co-creation that will blend Researchers at Schools (RAS) activities with European Researchers’ Nights (ERN) public events over the next two years.

In the USA, rTMS was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008 to treat patients suffering from treatment resistant depression, or in other words, patients who do not respond to standard antidepressants. It has since been approved or recommended in several other countries. The main advantage of rTMS is that it is a non-invasive, drug-free, and safe alternative treatment that really works: up to half of the patients for whom other antidepressant strategies have not worked will respond to rTMS.

Let's face it. As enticing as the idea of starting lunch with a chocolate cake might be, few would actually make that choice when it comes down to it. And yet, at the end of the meal, many would reach for that same cake without hesitation. 

The cause behind this phenomenon is the body's ever-changing internal states: by lunchtime, the body often needs protein, so the brain promotes that particular food choice. However, after the protein was ingested, carbs might be a nice extra for padding the body’s fat stores. 

A study published today (July 6th) in the journal Nature, uncovers how the brain stops us from jumping the gun. "We discovered a brain area responsible for driving action and another for suppressing that drive. We could also trigger impulsive behaviour by manipulating neurons in these areas", said the study's senior author, Joe Paton, Director of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme in Portugal.

Aside from Raquel Oliveira and Carlos Ribeiro, who conduct their research at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência and Champalimaud Foundation, respectively, 56 other EMBO Members have been elected this year, coming from 15 different Member States of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), EMBO’s intergovernmental funding body.