The Laço Association awards projects on TRIB2 protein, the protein actin and microtubules

The Laço Association decided to award Wolfgang Link, from the Centre for Molecular and Structural Biomedicine of the University of Algarve, and Janody Florence, from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. Each of the research grants of this 3rd edition is worth 25,000 euros.

The Wolfgang Link's project will analyze the role of TRIB2 protein in the formation and progression of breast cancer and its role in resistance to therapy. This project is important because it allows to find new approaches to the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, allowing the selection of some patients to realize personalized treatments that could be more effective against that kind of cancer.

The investigator Florence Janody presented a project about changes in the actin protein and existing microtubules inside cells when a cancer begins to invade. The objective is to show that the STI/BPAG1 molecule can inhibit cancer by actin and microtubules stabilization. Thus it would be possible to prevent the development of breast cancer in pre-invasive stage and to prevent progression and metastasis.

 
The two winning projects, according to the president of the jury, the researcher Raquel Seruca, vice president of Ipatimup, were selected «by the strength of the experimental plans, the relevance of the issues and the quality of the teams».

For more informations: http://www.laco.pt/