Maria de Sousa Prize distinguishes works on cancer and arthritis

O Maria de Sousa Award this year distinguishes work on antimicrobial dressings for wounds, lung cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease and brain functioning in learning, announced today the promoters.

Luísa Fialho (University of Porto), Sara Isabel Fernandes (Institute of Biotechnology of Flanders), Simão Teixeira (International Iberian Laboratory of Nanotechnology), Tatiana Morais and Ana Verónica Domingues (University of Minho) are the award-winning scientists, indicated together the Bial Foundation, which finances the distinction, and the Medical Order, which designates the members of the jury, along with the Bial.

Each of the prize winners will receive up to 30,000 euros and take an internship at research centers in Portugal, Spain, France and Germany.

Since 2021, the Maria de Sousa Prize has been awarded annually by the name of immunologist Maria de Sousa (1939-2020) and is intended to support research in the health sciences of young Portuguese scientists.

Researcher at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S) of the University of Porto, Luísa Fialho proposes to develop a dressing for skin wounds with healing properties against infections.

The proof of the concept of dressing will be done with bacteria cultures – two of the most frequent in wounds – and with skin cells, clarified the scientist to Lusa.

According to the work proposal, in the absence of infection, the dressing will maintain its yellow color and release antimicrobial and regenerating substances from the skin gradually, accelerating wound healing.

If the wound infects, the dressing will swell, change to blue color and quickly release these substances, which, unlike antibiotics, fight bacteria causing infection on various fronts.

The condition and evolution of the wound can be accompanied by the color of the dressing, avoiding unnecessary changes of dressing, while substances are released which, according to Luísa Fialho, are a promising and less expensive alternative to the common antibiotics.

Sara Isabel Fernandes of the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology in Belgium found, in a previous study, that breast cancer metastasized for the lung “recruits and reprograms” certain cells, type 2 alveolar cells (AT2), which normally keep the lungs healthy, to provide certain fats, in the case of lipids, that promote tumor growth.

In preclinical trials, the scientist observed that process blockade reduced the growth of lung metastases.

Now, in a new study, Sara Isabel Fernandes wants to understand whether the same mechanism, and blockage, occurs in primary and most common lung cancer (so-called non-small cell lung cancer) and, if so, whether it can be a possible target for the treatment of patients, particularly at more advanced stages.

The investigator will be using tumour samples from lung cancer patients and laboratory models.

Tatiana Morais of the Institute for Research in Life and Health Sciences of the University of Minho, “will study how changes in the lipids of the astrocytes, cells that help keep the brain working properly, can contribute to changes in the brain during Alzheimer's disease” and thus identify possible new markers of the disease and targets for treatment.

For this, the scientist will monitor the electrical activity of the brain, memory and behavior of mice that mimic different phases of Alzheimer's disease and analyze lipids and proteins present in the astrocytes.

Researcher at the same institute, Ana Verónica Domingues will also follow the brain activity of mice, but for another purpose: better understand how the brain learns and adapts behavior based on experience, whether positive or negative.

In particular, the scientist will analyze how dinorphine, an opioid produced by the brain, can alter communication between brain cells (neurons) and influence learning and behavior from experiments.

The investigator will measure the brain signals of rodents when they consume sucrose (positive experience) or when they experience a small shock (negative experience).

The focus of the study by Simão Teixeira, from the International Iberic Laboratory of Nanotechnology, in Braga, is autoimmune arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disease caused by the defenses of the body (immunity system) and that causes progressive destruction of joints, generating pain.

The researcher will study in the laboratory how some immune cells, in the case of T lymphocytes, “react to mechanical forces” and “contribute to the onset and worsening” of the disease.

For this, it will create a small replica of a joint with 3D printing of human cells to analyze lymphocytes. T “under conditions similar to those in the body” and use small particles, thousands of times thinner than a hair and remotely controlled by magnets, to realize how lymphocytes T react to physical forces such as pressure or stretching.

For Simon Teixeira, the knowledge produced may help in the future to produce more accurate treatments that act only on immune cells that trigger inflammation, reducing the side effects of current treatments and improving patients’ quality of life. The jury of the Maria de Sousa Prize 2026 was again chaired by neuroscientist Rui Costa.

The Bial Foundation, created in 1994 by the pharmaceutical company with the same name in partnership with the Council of Rectors of the Portuguese Universities, has the mission “to encourage the scientific study of the human being, both from a physical and spiritual point of view”.