Imagine the act of walking. It’s something most able-bodied people do without a second thought. Yet it is actually a complex process involving various neurological and physiological systems. PD is a condition where the brain slowly loses specific cells, called dopamine neurons, resulting in reduced strength and speed of movements. However, there’s another important aspect that gets affected: the length of actions. Someone with PD might not only move more slowly but also take fewer steps in a walking sequence or bout before stopping.

Rhiner's project seeks to understand the molecular and cellular circuits that help the brain recover from injuries. Damage to the nervous system disrupts the strongly linked networks of brain cells, leading to drastically altered cellular interactions that are not well understood. The BrainSySTEMic project is set to decode the molecular dialogues disrupted in injured brain tissues and discover new signalling pathways that encourage regeneration and strengthen the brain's ability to bounce back.

Imagine watching a film. The moving images you see are actually a series of static frames shown rapidly. This is the continuity illusion at work, where our brain perceives a sequence of quick flashes as continuous, smooth motion. It’s a phenomenon not just vital to our enjoyment of films but also a fundamental aspect of how all mammals, from humans to rats, perceive the dynamic world around them. This study from the CF’s Shemesh Lab, published in Nature Communications, delves into how this illusion is encoded in the brain.

Here, we highlight the observations, the questions, the approaches and strategies that showcase the creativity and critical thinking inherent in scientific research.

In science, creativity stands as a crucial, albeit sometimes underappreciated, skill. Creativity comes in a wide variety of forms and shapes, and often emerges from collaborative interactions among diverse minds, emphasising the importance of inclusivity and varied perspectives in driving forward groundbreaking research.

A Call for one Research fellowship (Bolsa de Investigação) is open at Fundação D. Anna de Sommer Champalimaud e Dr. Carlos Montez Champalimaud (Champalimaud Foundation) in the context of the project entitled “Circadian regulation of pulmonary immunity by neuroendocrine signals”, with reference “PTDC/MED-IMU/2189/2021”, from the Call Nº PTDC 2021, funded by the FCT, through Portuguese National Funds. 

Whenever we look at the world in front of us, light falls onto our retina and is processed in a series of steps in the brain. The primary visual cortex is the first stage in the cerebral cortex, where visual information is processed. Nevertheless, neurons here do not only respond to patterns of light, but to sounds as well. A major question in the field, however, has been whether these responses truly represent auditory information, or are instead modulations due to body movements elicited by the sounds.

The symposium will be organised as a single-track scientific meeting and count with keynote & invited speakers, talks selected from abstracts and a poster session together with other networking and social activities. It will be held on the 11^th and 12^th of March, 2024 at the Main Auditorium of the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal.

Slated to begin recruiting patients in 2025, the PsyPal study represents a significant step in exploring innovative treatments for deep psychological and existential distress in those with advanced illnesses. The CF, alongside three other European clinical sites, will treat over one hundred patients, each site focusing on a different condition.

The ERC Proof of Concept Grant is awarded exclusively to Principal Investigators who have previously won an ERC grant. Its primary goal is to support the commercial and social innovation potential of ERC-funded research. “It takes courage and skill to take an idea from the lab into the world of business. The Proof of Concept grants announced today are designed to enable researchers to take this brave step and transform groundbreaking research into tangible innovations”, remarked Iliana Ivanova, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.