“Humbling, rewarding and exciting”: this was how João Conde, principal investigator of Cancer Nanomedicine group, described the recognition he received by being part of the list of researchers, published by PLOS Biology, who are within the top 2% of scientists of their main subfield - Nanotechnology and Nanoscience in his case, among those who published at least five papers in 2019.
At a personal level, the recognition comforts the researcher: “[This distinction] Means that hard work and creativity does work, that doing what I and we love, what I am, and we are passionate about ... works.” From a more professional perspective, being considered one of the most cited authors in his field of expertise, “raises the bar” and increases the responsibility as João Conde suggests: “(…) the price of greatness is a responsibility and we should never forget that our ultimate goal is to help improve the standard of care of more cancer patients on a bigger scale, help more people, create positive change on a bigger scale”.
These recognitions are usually time to evaluate the path walked and to look at the future. For João Conde and his team, this is an encouragement to keep fighting cancer: “We need to continue the efforts we have done so far (…). If a drug is not properly delivered or is not selectively delivered, all that is missed is an opportunity for establishing a new active treatment in cancer”. At the end of the day, the distinction also remembers João Conde and his team of their mission. In the scientist’s own words: “our ultimate goal is to leverage the integration of Cancer Nanotechnology on Precision Medicine to redefine disease treatments and provide hope for “cohorts” of patients and families to come.”