IBMC.INEB researchers win Prémio Melo e Castro 2015

The 2015 winners of Prémios Santa Casa Neurociências were announced yesterday, breaking the news that Prémio Melo Castro – and the 200 thousand euros that come with it – are headed to our institute thanks to the project COMBINE - Combinatorial regenerative strategy to potentiate axon regeneration and improve functional recovery after spinal cord injury.

IBMC.INEB researchers Ana Paula Pêgo and Mónica Sousa led the project, which was carried out in cooperation with Centro de Reabilitação do Norte, a rehabilitation center that includes a Rehabilition Unit of Spinal Cord Injuries, and Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company currently working in collaboration with the Nerve Regeneration group.

Failure in axon regeneration following spinal cord injury (SCI) is the consequence of the intrinsic inability of affected axons to mount a pro-regenerative program, combined with the highly inhibitory extrinsic environment of the glial scar. The researchers propose a novel therapeutic strategy designed to target both the cell-intrinsic properties of CNS neurons and the extrinsic inhibitory milieu of the injured spinal cord. The idea is that this pro-regenerative approach is further combined with a rehabilitation program.

The other award, Prémio Mantero Belard, and corresponding prize went to University of Coimbra’s researcher António Ambrósio and his team for a project looking to achieve a breakthrough in Alzheimer’s Disease.

Instituted in 2013 by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa in order to promote the advancement of health care in key areas for the institution and for society as a whole, Prémios Santa Casa Neurociências awards a total of 400 thousand euros every year to the most promising research projects in the Neurosciences and splits into two awards: Prémio Melo e Castro, which rewards the clinical or scientific research project with the highest potential to innovate in the search to rehabilitate and/or treat spinal cord injury; and Prémio Mantero Belard, an accolade destined to the best research project set on understanding the causes, preventing and treating ageing-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson and Alzheimer’s.