Janssen Neurosciences Prize awarded for work on Parkinson's Disease

The awarded work, entitled "Intracellular traffic-dependent pathways as a unifying premise in sporadic Parkinson's disease: a new therapeutic target", despite not yet being the discovery of a new drug, allowed the unveiling of errors in the functioning of an intracellular traffic mechanism. Once this dysfunction is identified, it will be possible to continue the research that may contribute, in the future, to a more effective treatment for a disease that affects more than 20 thousand Portuguese and registers around two thousand cases annually. 

The 41-year-old researcher received her PhD in Biology from the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Coimbra, 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 Prize is awarded every two years and was created by Janssen, Pharmaceutical Company, in order to reward excellent research developed nationally in this important scientific area. 

Sandra Cardoso considers this award as 'a recognition in research done in Portugal and in this case, by Portuguese people.'

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