Cláudia Almeida, Principal Investigator of Neuronal Trafficking in Aging Lab received an Honourable Mention at 9th Edition of Crioestaminal Award in Biomedicine, with the project: “Elucidating molecular phenotypes caused by the C2AP Alzheimer’s disease genetic risk factor using human induced pluripotent stem cells”.
Late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease without treatment specially because there is a lack of knowledge related with the cause of LOAD. However, it is well known that the development of LOAD likely depends on aging and genetic risk. CD2AP gene variants are associated with Alzheimer’s disease because they may accelerate the aging increasing the change of developing this disorder. Recently Cláudia’s team found that CD2AP controls the production of beta-amyloid 42, which is Alzheimer’s disease primary trigger. In this project the research group of Cláudia Almeida will explore if the rare coding variant in CD2AP increases the production of beta-amyloid 42 and drives synapses dysfunctional. To do this, the team will establish a human model of LOAD to demonstrate the CD2AP causality in the development of Alzheimer’s disease phenotypes.
The award ceremony took place on May 30 at Instituto de Medicina Molecular and the winner of this edition was Bruno Costa-Silva from Champalimaud Foundation with the project: “The role of pancreatic cancer-derived exosomes in mediating bone marrow cell recruitment to the pre-metastatic liver (PC10)”.
This prize distinguishes the best basic research in Portugal and is the result of a partnership between Crioestaminal and Associação Viver a Ciência.