AWARDS: Genzyme fellowship awarded to IBMC researchers

The Portuguese Society for Metabolic Diseases awarded the "Bolsa Genzyme de Investigação" to IBMC researchers Fátima Macedo and Cátia Pereira. The prize, worth 5000€, is financed by the pharmaceutical company Genzyme and was granted to the best research project in Hereditary Metabolic Diseases.

The project in case is a follow-up on the analysis of the immune system in the context of Fabry disease, in which the group identified changes in a T-cell subset, the invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cells.

iNKT cells are activated by lipids similar to those that accumulate in the cells of Fabry disease patients. However, it is not clear how the cellular lipid accumulation may lead to iNKT cell alterations.

This award will allow clarifying the previously identified mechanisms responsible for the iNKT cell alterations, but it will also contribute to a better characterization of the function of iNKT cells, which are known to play an important role during infections, cancer and autoimmunity.