Pulido Valente Science Prize 2016

(Available only in Portuguese)

On March 21, researcher Roksana Maria Pirzgalska will receive the 2016 Pulido Valente Science Award in the field of neuroscience. She is the lead 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 Gdansk University of Technology (Poland). In 2012, she received an Studentship 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 Award was carried out as part of her PhD at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (Oeiras), in Dr. Ana Domingos' laboratory.

The Pulido Valente Science Award annually recognizes the best article published in the field of Biomedical Sciences, describing the results of research conducted by a researcher under the age of 35 at the time of application, at a national R&D institution. The prize is worth €10,000, jointly funded 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 3:00 p.m., at the Thalia Theater in Lisbon.