Host

Carlos Ribeiro, PhD, Behavior and Metabolism

Venue

Seminar room

With more than three decades of pioneering work in breast cancer prevention, Dr Andrea De Censi, has joined the Champalimaud Foundation as the new Director of the Breast Unit. An internationally recognised medical oncologist and a leader in chemoprevention, Dr De Censi brings a vision that integrates prevention, clinical care and translational research in a patient-centred model.

Between February 2017 and December 2020, the team performed approximately 200 robotic procedures. Over the subsequent five years, from December 2020 to December 2025, this number more than doubled, reaching 500 procedures, an achievement that reflects the consolidation of a nationally recognised reference programme with extensive experience in robotic gynaecological surgery.

The symposium, themed "Neural and Immune Codes in Cancer" will gather an interdisciplinary community of researchers to discuss the interplay between the neural and immune systems in relation to cancer initiation, progression and therapy. This symposium will emphasise the dynamic interactions among tumour cells, neurons and immune components, and how these relationships impact tumour growth, metastasis and the tumour microenvironment.

As a winner of the Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher Award, Inês Pires da Silva was recognised for her exceptional progress and global impact in translational cancer research. She has led international studies that have shaped current clinical practice and advanced scientific understanding of resistance mechanisms in immunotherapy.

Since the 1990s, non-invasive brain stimulation has grown from an experimental idea into an established tool for treating depression as well as advancing neuroscience research. Among these technologies, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is clinically validated and used to treat major depressive disorder, also known as unipolar depression.

Thinking about the past and how it shaped the present is never simple. But Zach Mainen, who has been here since day one, was a natural person to revisit the “Then and Now” of the Champalimaud Foundation (CF). We spoke about what it meant to take on a new and unpredictable project, and how the dream of a small group gradually became reality. I hope this story inspires you to step into the unknown and to trust that even when the future feels uncertain, it can still unfold into something remarkable.

Maria João Villas-Boas has been close to the Champalimaud Foundation (CF) since its early days. “I was fascinated, truly fascinated,” she told me as I asked when she had first heard about it. She had been following Leonor Beleza's work in the press, and the clarity of her clear vision for the CF made a lasting impression.