2020.00043.CEECIND
Five UCIBIO researchers have been awarded a contract in the 2020 Individual Scientific Employment Stimulus Competition (CEEC), which is the third edition of this call promoted by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) for doctoral researchers in all scientific areas.
Aldino Viegas and Filipa Marcelo, both in the category of Assistant Researcher, and Helena Coelho in the category of Junior Researcher, are from the (Bio)molecular Structure and Interactions by NMR Lab, led by Eurico Cabrita, professor at FCT NOVA. Sérgio Sousa in the category of Assistant Researcher leads the BioMolecular Simulations Lab at UCIBIO-UPorto, and Ana Luísa Maulvault, in the category of Junior researcher, is from the BioTox Lab, led by Mário Diniz, professor at FCT-NOVA.
The results announced by FCT indicate that 3,648 applications were evaluated by 25 international panels, of which 1,675 obtained a minimum grade to be eligible for financing. The 300 applications selected for contract correspond to 18% of the eligible applications.
Aldino Viegas’s project, NETfix (Molecular basis for ligand recognition of the human norepinephrine transporter), aims to develop a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) approach to study the Norepinephrine (NE) Transporter (NET), specifically its binding and transport mechanism. NET plays an essential role in the nervous system and its dysregulation is associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), making this transporter a key pharmacologic target. NMR spectroscopy is a leading structural technique to characterize protein structure, function and interactions and, complemented by state-of-the-art molecular biology, computational and biophysical techniques can provide structural, biochemical and biophysical atomic-level details and an unprecedent mechanistic understanding of NET transport function and interactions. Aldino Viegas explains that “the goal is to develop a protocol that allows to find and characterize possible positive allosteric binding sites that can be used to discover and optimize compounds with activity for therapeutic use. The expected results will provide valuable information for early stage drug development for CVDs, thus representing a new therapeutic paradigm with a potentially significant socioeconomic impact. The proposed plan will also foster the development of new methodologies in the field of membrane protein (MP) expression and purification, combining molecular biology and the use of nanodiscs, aiming at NMR studies. Besides, it will constitute a further step to attain and consolidate my scientific independence and a leading position in the area of structural and functional studies of MPs in Portugal.”
NETfix
(This project) aims to develop a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) approach to study the Norepinephrine (NE) Transporter (NET), specifically its binding and transport mechanism.
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