Solange Farreca and Adriana Capucho, Master Students from Neuromet Lab, were distinguished with the 1st Prize within «Nutrition» category and the Honor Award within the «Obesity and its Comorbidities» category, respectively, due to their presentations in the 24th Portuguese Obesity Congress, promoted by Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo da Obesidade, last November.
While Solange Farreca discovered that: “the consumption of caffeine, for example, through coffee intake in a dose of 3-4 cups a day, improve the metabolism of adipose tissue and consequently decrease weight gain”, Adriana Capucho concluded that “(...) carotid sinus nerve denervation ameliorates insulin, leptin and dopamine signaling in the satiety pathways at the hypothalamus [a structure located in the brain] and therefore positively impacts on food intake.”
The results obtained by both students are very promising in the main field of research of the NeurometLab since they “seek to discover two therapeutic targets for metabolic diseases, one through chronic caffeine consumption and the other via the modulation of the carotid sinus nerve” – says Sílvia Conde, principal investigator -, which can lead to new therapeutic approaches for obesity and related conditions like type 2 diabetes.
For Solange Farreca, winning this award is very gratifying, as she concludes: “These kind of awards are always important, as it strong our motivation to keep working hard and to pursue better results and (…) believe it will have more impact at a professional level paving the way for new opportunities.” Adriana Capucho feels the same way and refers that: “(…) this award gave even more motivation to keep working on this field and realizing that my work has been recognized is certainly important, not only for my laboratory and me.” Apart from these reasons, the both students are unanimous when pointing out that the distinctions are also very important because they give hope to patients suffering from metabolic conditions.