Janssen Neuroscience Prize awarded for work on Parkinson's disease

The award-winning work, entitled "Intracellular traffic-dependent pathways as a unifying premise in sporadic Parkinson's disease: a new therapeutic target,"although not yet the discovery of a new drug, has revealed malfunctions in an intracellular traffic mechanism. Once this dysfunction has been identified, it will be possible to continue research that could contribute to a more effective treatment in the future for a disease that affects more than 20,000 Portuguese people and accounts for around 2,000 cases annually. 

The 41-year-old researcher holds a PhD in Biology from the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Coimbra. She is currently a professor at the Faculty of Medicine and has been conducting research on Parkinson's disease for three years at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC) at the same university.

The Janssen Neuroscience Award is presented every two years and was created by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies to recognize outstanding research conducted nationally in this important scientific field. 

Sandra Cardoso considers this award to be "recognition for research carried out in Portugal and, in this case, by Portuguese researchers."

 The award ceremony took place yesterday, March 18, at 6:30 p.m., at the Pavilion of Knowledge.