Dra. Maria do Carmo-Fonseca

iMM President

“The attention of the group I lead has always been focused on genes, on how we can study and understand genetic alterations, and how these alterations have implications which change the course of disease.”

Maria Carmo-Fonseca, president of the Institute of Molecular Medicine, underlined the importance of more national businesses following Pioneer’s example and investing in research projects which can change the way we perceive diseases today - particularly cancer. Having dedicated over 30 years to the study of cells, she is also a researcher for iMM, and leads a team focused on the study of genes, in order to find out how certain genetic alterations can change the course of some fatal diseases.

Dra. Maria Mota

iMM Executive Director

“We need civil society to support us;
we need civil society to get involved with us.”

Maria Mota, a malaria biology and physiology researcher at the Institute of Molecular Medicine since 2014, highlights the importance of the iMM-Laço partnership and appeals to civil society to join this discussion. For this iMM professional, the more partners join, the stronger the partnership is. With this same reasoning, she maintains that more parts of civil society, both individuals and groups, must support this type of research, given that the objective is for this very society to benefit from its results.

Dr. Bruno Silva Santos

iMM Vice-President

“We have to manipulate the immune system to make it completely antitumour.”

Bruno Silva-Santos, Vice-President of the Institute of Molecular Medicine, dreamed of being at the centre of a laboratory conducting this type of research from a young age. Recently, his team discovered that the immune system exhibits paradoxical behaviours in its interaction with breast cancer. On the one hand, it tries to fight it, but on the other hand, it can also produce conditions which help breast cancer to develop. With this discovery, the goal now is to manipulate the immune system to make it completely antitumour.

Dra. Célia Carvalho

Molecular testing to assess the risk of recurrence

“If we know the genetic profile of each cancer, we can provide the most appropriate treatment for each tumour.”

Célia Carvalho, researcher and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Lisbon, is working on the molecular testing project to assess the risk of recurrence; she is trying to characterise each type of breast cancer to find the most appropriate treatment. Using samples collected during surgery of patients in the early stages of breast cancer, it is possible to calculate the risk of recurrence and make a distinction between two patient groups, those with a lower or higher risk of recurrence, in order to personalise treatment. At iMM, Célia Carvalho aims to combine her knowledge of molecular biology and the possibilities of innovative technologies, in order to offer the most correct and appropriate treatment for each patient.

Dra. Catarina Silveira

Investigação na Sequenciação do DNA tumoral

“The goal is to develop techniques that are sufficiently sensitive to detect alterations in the tumoural DNA circulating in bodily fluids.”

Catarina Silveira, a PhD student at GenoMed, aims to develop a molecular test which would allow us to define which cancers are low risk in order to identify cases where more aggressive treatments, such as chemotherapy, are unnecessary. The goal of her research is to develop a sufficiently sensitive method of detecting mutations in the tumoural DNA circulating in bodily fluids (liquid biopsy). In this way, it will be possible to plan even more personalised treatment.

Dr. Sérgio Dias

Estudo das células

“More recently, we have studied the interaction between the vessels, the cancer itself, and the immune system of the host to find out how these change to favour the development of cancer.”

Sérgio Dias, head researcher, works with his research group to understand how different components of tumour cells and immune cells communicate with each other, allowing the tumour to progress. In the future, the goal is to identify a molecular marker for a specific individual, which can contradict the growth of a tumour through the response of their own immune system. 

Dra. Karine Serre

Manipulation of myeloid cells

“I feel inspired by being able to study the immune system and by trying to cure one of the greatest diseases of the 21st century: cancer.”

The immune system is one of the pillars of cancer research, as it is able to recognise and kill cancer cells. Immunotherapy allows us to recover patients’ immune systems, thereby decimating cancer cells, but unfortunately this treatment doesn’t work for all patients, or all types of cancer. The mission of Karine Serre, a researcher at FCT, is to study the immune system and its possibilities for cancer treatment, as well as monitoring the development of immunotherapy in these patients. The iMM scientist stresses that the funding the iMM-Laço Hub and Pioneer provide for these studies is essential for their success.

Dra. Sandra Casimiro

Research into metastatic disease

“All discoveries are important but I think that society and patients would like to have a faster answer.”

Using samples from Portuguese patients, Sandra Casimiro, an iMM researcher, studies mutations which lead to the development of breast cancer. As a team, iMM is collecting the greatest possible number of samples in order to confirm the various discoveries already made, so that these can be applied quickly at a clinical level and improve the treatment and prognosis of these patients. After ten years in the field, the scientist believes there is still little known about treating this cancer. Although she understands that all discoveries are extremely relevant, she stresses that society and patients want faster answers. There are advanced technological resources available, but they are extremely expensive, which is why more financial resources are necessary.

Dr. Luís Costa

Research into breast cancer’s propensity for bone metastasis

“In our laboratory, with relation to breast cancer, we are very focused on understanding why it is that this disease has a high propensity for bone metastasis.”

Luís Costa, a head researcher at iMM since 2007, a professor at FMUL, Director of Oncology at Santa Maria Hospital - CHLN, and a specialist in translational oncobiology, currently leads a group of scientists searching for answers related to breast cancer, namely regarding bone metastasis - a field which he says is still under-explored. We already know that in order to metastasise bone, cancer needs to work with its cells to achieve this invasion. This is the area Luís Costa’s team operates in: its mission is to find indicators which reveal a greater propensity for the disease to spread to bone, but also to anticipate the cases where it could spread to other organs. The head researcher also stressed the importance of understanding which mechanisms resist hormone treatment and highlighted that there are no indicators which reveal the most suitable treatment for each patient. Advances in this area would be invaluable, given that these treatments have a high level of toxicity and are extremely expensive.