Pulido Valente Science Prize 2016

On March 21, researcher Roksana Maria Pirzgalska will receive the Pulido Valente Science Prize 2016, in the field of Neurosciences. The researcher is 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. The study used optogenetics, a cutting-edge technique in which genetically modified neurons can be activated with light.

Roksana Pirzgalka holds a master's degree in Biotechnology from the Gdansk University of Technology (Poland). In 2012, she received an Albert Renold Travel Studentship 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 her the Pulido Valente Science Prize was carried out as part of her PhD at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Oeiras), in the laboratory of Dr. Ana Domingos.

The Pulido Valente Science Prize annually honors the best article published in an area of Biomedical Sciences, describing the results of research carried out by a researcher under the age of 35 on the date of submission of the application, at a national R&D institution. The amount of this prize is 10,000 euros, co-financed 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 award ceremony will take place on March 21 at 3pm at the Thalia Theater in Lisbon.