The Cancer Dormancy & Immunity Lab headed by Ana Luísa Correia is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral candidate
to join us on a project supported by an AACR Trailblazer grant.

The three projects span very different areas of research. Moita, working in partnership with César Mendes at NOVA Medical School, will investigate how the brain and body produce the rapid defensive reactions that make us jump or flinch when startled. Van Gisbergen will study how certain immune cells establish themselves in the lungs, with the long-term goal of improving vaccines against influenza and other respiratory viruses.

Surgery is often the main treatment for pancreatic cancer and for several other pancreatic conditions. It is also one of the most complex surgical operations in medicine. A particularly feared complication afterwards is internal bleeding, known as postpancreatectomy haemorrhage. Since 2007, surgeons worldwide have graded these bleeds with an international system. It combines three factors: when the bleeding starts, where it happens and how severe it seems.

A small “triangle” with a big impact

Behind the pancreas lies a compact, triangle‑shaped area bordered by three major blood vessels that supply the abdomen. Surgeons call it the TRIANGLE compartment. In standard pancreatic cancer surgery, this region is not systematically removed. For years, however, specialists have suspected that microscopic cancer cells may be hiding there, beyond what imaging and the naked eye can detect.

There is a line by British artist David Shrigley that goes: “I had no interest in it then I looked inside and now I'm enchanted by it.” In other words, it is difficult to be genuinely interested in something we know nothing about. First, we need the chance to take a look inside. To get closer. To explore. To ask questions. And sometimes, it is at that very moment, when something that once seemed distant becomes tangible, that fascination begins.
The same is true of science.

 Host

Cristina João, MD, PhD, Myeloma Lymphoma Lab

Venue

Seminar Room

Millions of people living with Breast cancer or depression experience physical, psychological, social and financial burdens that remain unseen or insufficiently addressed in routine care. Although patient-reported outcome measures exist and provide valuable insights, they often reduce complex patient experiences to numerical scores. At the same time, healthcare professionals face fragmented clinical data, increasing documentation demands and digital tools that are not always well integrated into care.

Host

Michael Orger, PhD, Vision to Action Lab

Venue

Seminar Room

Abstract

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy allows biological observation below the diffraction limit of light. Live-cell applications remain limited by phototoxicity, temporal resolution, and sample stability.

The taste map, led by scientists at CF, is one of two landmark studies published in Cell by a team of researchers in the US and Europe. It draws on a companion study that maps the wiring of the first complete central nervous system of a complex adult animal: nearly 167,000 neurons spanning the brain and nerve cord of a male fruit fly, with artificial intelligence (AI) making a reconstruction on this scale possible.