IBMC researcher receives EMBO Long-Term Fellowship

IBMC researcher Francisco Mesquita was granted an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship.

Francisco Mesquita is the 3rd IBMC researcher to be awarded with this highly competitive international fellowship, after Eurico Morais de Sá and Lígia Tavares.

EMBO Long-Term Fellowships are awarded for a period of up to two years and support post-doctoral research visits to laboratories throughout Europe and the world. International exchange is a key feature in the application process. All fellowships must involve movement between countries. The receiving institute or the applicant’s nationality must be from one of the EMBC Member States. 

Francisco Mesquita is particularly interested in the study of the alternative roles of Endoplasmatic Reticulum (ER) molecular chaperones. Canonically, chaperones enable cells to correctly fold and assemble proteins, thereby ensuring appropriate expression and function of their ‘clients’. Besides this role in protein quality control, some ER chaperones are also expressed at the surface of different mammalian cells where they influence adherence, invasion and intracellular survival of multiple microbes. The Group of Molecular Microbiology aims to identify the stimuli that trigger the expression of these chaperones at the surface of mammalian cells and unravel the molecular mechanisms responsible for their surface expression and influence in bacterial infections.

http://www.embo.org/index.php