Issue 4
October 2015

  Highlights

· UNLOCK: Uncovering and Noting
  Long-term Outcomes in COPD
  and asthma to enhance Knowledge
· The sweet drive test: a new
  behavioral paradigm

  More in this issue

· Representative Research Papers
· International Postgraduate Program
· PhD Thesis

An ECS/ICVS team developed an innovative computer program for managing respiratory diseases.

This tool offers primary health care doctors a structured way of doing follow-up consultation in the context of COPD, Asthma, Allergic rhinitis and Asthma / COPD Overlap Syndrome (ACOS), while gathering data for future clinical and epidemiological research that will contribute to the increase of knowledge in prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and management of chronic obstructive respiratory diseases.

This is a project with several years of evolution, developed by the International Primary Care Respiratory Group. It results of international collaboration between medical researchers of Primary Health Care in the coordination and sharing of databases involving relevant variables in the diagnosis and management of COPD and Asthma. The ECS/ICVS team, coordinated by Prof. Jaime Correia de Sousa, created UNLOCK in collaboration with a researcher from the Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto.

A Research Team from ICVS has developed a new behavioral paradigm, the Sweet Drive Test, to measure anhedonic behavior in rats. A study using this technic, in collaboration with the portuguese pharmaceutical company Grupo Tecnimede, has been recently published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. This work focuses on the role of a selective MAO-A inhibitor in the reversion of the neuroplastic deficits in the hippocampus, promoted by the exposure to chronic stress, in a preclinical setting.

From this process a new start-up company was born: Bn’ML. It's mission is to optimize the sorting process of therapeutic compounds, in a preclinical phase, sustaining the investment associated with the transition to a later clinical-trials phase. The company delivers customized behavioral and molecular analysis services for testing the therapeutic potential of new compounds, using animal models of disease.

Do stars govern our actions? Astrocyte involvement in rodent behavior.
Oliveira JF, Sardinha VM, Guerra-Gomes S, Araque A, Sousa N.
Trends Neurosci. 2015 Sep;38(9):535-49

Serotonergic signalling suppresses ataxin 3 aggregation
and neurotoxicity in animal models of Machado-Joseph disease.
Teixeira-Castro A, Jalles A, Esteves S, Kang S, da Silva Santos L, et al.
Brain. 2015 Sep 15. pii: awv262

PTX3-based genetic testing for risk of aspergillosis after lung transplantation.
Cunha C, Monteiro AA, Oliveira-Coelho A, Kühne J, Rodrigues F,
Sasaki SD, Schio SM, et al.
Clin Infect Dis. 2015 Aug 10. pii: civ679

In collaboration with: UCIBIO/REQUIMTE-Laboratory of Toxicology,
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto:
A breakthrough on Amanita phalloides poisoning:
an effective antidotal effect by polymyxin B.
Garcia J, Costa VM, Carvalho AT, Silvestre R*, Duarte JA, Dourado DF, et al.
Arch Toxicol. 2015 Sep 18

*ECS/ICVS Researcher


other research papers

International Postgraduate Program
October to November ‘15

Training in Clinical Sciences
SURGICAL APPROACHES TO TUMORS
AND VASCULAR LESIONS OF THE BRAIN
October 6-10, 2015

GYNECOLOGICAL LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY
comprehensive hands-on course with live surgery
7th Edition | October 29-31, 2015

MINIMALLY INVASIVE SPINE SURGERY
4th Edition | November 13-14, 2015

BASIC LAPAROSCOPY FOR RESIDENTS
9th Edition | November 16-17, 2015

Training in Biomedical Sciences
FUNDAMENTALS IN GENETICS,
DEVELOPMENT AND NEOPLASIA
7th Edition | October 12-23, 2015

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
7th Edition | October 26 - November 6, 2015

BIOINFORMATICS IN HEALTH SCIENCES
7th Edition | November 9-20, 2015


more information

PhD Thesis


29nd October ‘15
LOOKING FOR MECHANISMS REGULATING
LUNG GROWTH IN CDH: RAT AND HUMAN STUDIES
Candidate: Patrícia Daniela Pereira Terra
Supervisors: Dr. Jorge Correia Pinto
and Prof. Dr. Alan W. Flake

6th November’15
“PHENOWORLD”: A NEW MULTIDIMENSIONAL STRATEGY TO STUDYING BEHAVIOR IN RODENTS
Candidate: Magda João Castelhano Carlos
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Nuno Sousa,
Prof. Dr. Vera Baumans