Pulido Valente Science Award 2016

Researcher Roksana Maria Pirzgalska will receive the 2016 Pulido Valente Science Award on March 21, in the area of Neuroscience. The researcher is the first author of the article Sympathetic Neuro-adipose Connections Mediate Leptin-Driven Lipolysis, published in the journal CELL (2015).

The article demonstrates, for the first time, that adipose tissue is innervated and that direct activation of these neurons burns fat. In the study carried out, optogenetics was used, which consists of a cutting-edge technique in which genetically modified neurons can be activated with light.

Roksana Pirzgalka holds a Master's degree in Biotechnology from Gdansk University of Technology (Poland). In 2012, he received a Studentship Albert Renold Travel to investigate complications associated with diabetes, at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology in Coimbra. She was then selected for the MIT-Portugal Program in Bioengineering Systems. The research that earned him the Pulido Valente Science Award was carried out as part of his doctorate at the Gulbenkian Science Institute (Oeiras), in the laboratory of Doctor Ana Domingos.

The Pulido Valente Science Award annually distinguishes the best article published in an area of Biomedical Sciences, which describes the results of research carried out by a researcher under 35 years of age on the date of submission of the application, in a national R&D institution. The value of this Prize is 10 thousand euros, shared by the Professor Francisco Pulido Valente Foundation and the Foundation for Science and Technology , in accordance with the Protocol established between the two institutions.

The awards ceremony will be on March 21st, at 3pm, at Teatro Thalia, in Lisbon.