SymbNET Research Grants awarded to IGC researchers

Researchers from the Instituto Gulbenkian Ciência (FCG-IGC) have recently been awarded two SymbNET Research Grants to collaborate with partners at the EMBL.

The IGC researchers Migla Miskinyte, from the Host-Microorganism Interactions Lab, and Rui Martins, from the Inflammation Lab, will receive 4.000€ each to perform Metabolomics’ techniques not existent at the IGC but available at the EMBL.

Migla, who will collaborate with the EMBL Metabolic microbiome–host interactions Lab, says, “I am thrilled to receive one of the research grants from SymbNET that will help us to identify metabolic changes influencing Wolbachia-induced antiviral protection. Very successful collaboration between two SymbNET groups, led by Luis Teixeira (IGC) and Michael Zimmermann (EMBL).”

According to Rui, “This grant is crucial towards the development of our project, as it enables us to collaborate with EMBL to perform advanced metabolomics and lipidomics techniques. These will allow us to achieve a deeper understanding of how a host-generated metabolite can fight infection by Plasmodium spp., the causative agent of malaria. A mechanistic understanding of this phenomenon can provide much needed novel avenues of therapeutic development against malaria.” Rui will develop his experiments in collaboration with the EMBL Metabolomics Core Facility.

This funding aims to promote the use of new technologies and approaches in Metabolomics, Genomics and Proteomics and the interaction of FCG-IGC and ITQB-NOVA researchers with the SymbNET partner institutions (CAU, UNIL, EMBL). The purpose is for the researchers to use and identify techniques to be imported to IGC and ITQB-NOVA facilities or to be used in the long-term as an external service in partner institutions or collaborations.