ATG newsletter issue 6

ATG Newsletter Issue 06

November 2017

Welcome to another edition of the ATG Member Newsletter

Past, Present and Future Filipa Ferreira, Editor-in-Chief

ATG Newsletter

Issue 06 November, 2017 Contributors: Alexandre do Carmo Ana Rita Araújo António Amorim Catarina Carona Catarina Seabra Claudio Sunkel Fátima Carneiro Filipa Ferreira Helder F. Araújo Iliona Wolfowicz Joana Wilton João Neto Manuel Sobrinho Simões Maria De Sousa Milene Costa Silva Pedro Resende Rita Canario Vanessa Pires Cover: Iliona Wolfowicz Editor-in-Chief: Filipa Ferreira Editors: Iliona Wolfowicz & Catarina Seabra

ATG - All Time GABBA The Alumni Association of the Graduate Program in Areas of Basic and Applied Biology University of Porto - Portugal www.atg.up.pt ATG - GABBA i3S, R. Alfredo Allen, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal

This issue of ATG Newsletter focuses on GABBA's 20-year journey. It celebrates GABBA’s past and present accomplishments, and reflects on them. Here, instead I would like to jump into the future and write an optimistic letter to the 2037 ATG Newsletter’ editor:

Dear Editor: It has been forty years since GABBA was founded. GABBA has been changing science in Portugal and the rest of the world, and influencing the lives of many students like you. I hope you enjoyed your years as a graduate student; those years go by so quickly (or so I have heard). I hope you feel, like all the others before you, lucky to be exposed to all the different science subjects, to have the freedom and the support to explore what you are interested in wherever you want and to come back to meet your friends and receive feedback annually in Porto, to be a part of this family. I am sure that there were difficult times during these forty years, but the persisting efforts of GABBA and its ATGs assured that GABBA is still a reality today. The challenges and disappointing moments were all worth it and are outweighed by the countless successes and joyful moments. GABBA was, is and always will be GABBA, and that’s what matters above all. Thanks for helping GABBA continue to make science in Portugal thrive. Best, Filipa ***

Contents Message from the President of the Executive Board Pedro Resende 6 De Sousa et al. Maria de Sousa Alexandre do Carmo António Amorim Catarina Carona Claudio Sunkel Fátima Carneiro Manuel Sobrinho Simões 8 GABBA 20 Symposium, Nano 2 Universe Vanessa Pires 27 City of Knowledge Part I. Knowledge Ana Rita Araújo & Catarina Seabra 32 Part II. Citizens Joana Wilton 39 ATG News Milene Costa Silva 58 GABBA infographics João Neto 61 University of Lisbon award to Maria de Sousa Helder Araújo & Maria de Sousa 65

Have you already become a member? To become a member, all you need to do is pay the annual dues, fill out the membership form, and email us the payment confirmation along with the membership form. You may find the form on the ATG website: www.atg.up.pt

Message from the President of the Executive Board Pedro Resende

Two decades is quite a long age for a Ph.D. program. How did it survive “Like great wines do, students of the very first editions are aging well and continuously surprise us with their quality...”

“I am convinced that the future (good or bad) of GABBA will depend strongly on us, the alumni.”

until now? In my view (and shared by many I am sure), GABBA started as unique for three top-reasons: the criteria used to select GABBA students, the high-quality/high diversity of classes that compose the first months of the program, and the opportunity for students to go to any lab in the world (no strings attached). I see GABBAs coordinators as winemakers that are proud of their small vineyard (never aimed to be big producers for sure) and have their focus on the authenticity and the quality of their wine. Over the years, GABBAs vintages have always been of high quality, despite the constants changes in the terroir (Portuguese Science Policies). Like great wines do, students of the very first editions are aging well and continuously surprise us with their quality, with major scientific discoveries and career achievements. Today, GABBA holds an asset of enormous value, its community: coordinators, students, alumni, professors and others. If GABBA is alive today is not simply because of the quality of its students and the quality of the science produced. The resilience of those who believe in this program and year after year fight for its funding made it. I am convinced that the future (good or bad) of GABBA will depend strongly on us, the alumni. ATG was created to strengthen GABBA and to empower GABBA community, so that we help our winemakers and altogether keep making some of finest wines Portuguese science has to taste. Congratulations GABBA on your 20th anniversary! ***

We know you are really busy with other impact factors, but your help would really have a major impact on ATG! ATG really needs your help! Send us an email when you are ready to help us, will you?

DE SOUSA et al. GABBA or the Power of Democracy

Maria de Sousa

The first twenty years: from conception to achievement. When I was kindly asked by Filipa Ferreira to write a short memory piece for this edition, I felt quite reluctant to do it. For one reason, as Antonio Damasio said so eloquently in a recent meeting on Alzheimer’s Disease in Lisbon, memory is important for the past, for the present but also for predicting the future. I am very reluctant to talk about the past especially when Diogo Manoel did such a beautiful job in the past when celebrating the Program’s 15-year mark (Manoel, GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program). In terms of learning, I consider learning an activity comparable to breathing. We just breathe we do not waist anytime talking about it. In fact, because memory has an affective component, I remember with other members of the Board of Directors of the Program, better than anything, how difficult it was at times to find the necessary understanding and support in the University and how some difficulties generally of bureaucratic nature continue to make themselves felt on the way to effectiveness of the simplest decisions.

“I remember also the astonishment that descended upon the first GABBA candidates that came for an interview thinking they were coming for an interview for a MSc, and suddenly found that the whole thing had changed into a PhD program.”

I remember vaguely that we used to start the academic year with a talk by an invited speaker, and that Antono Damasio was our inaugural speaker. That was an honor at the time, and as time passed his standing with Hanna Damasio in the scientific world has only increased. I remember also the astonishment that descended upon the first GABBA candidates that came for an interview thinking they were coming for an interview for a MSc, and suddenly found that the whole thing had changed into a PhD program. This in itself gives the idea of how the Program was born with unexpected colors and great flexibility. Great flexibility until professor Sobrinho Simões felt there was the need to interrupt it to make sure that “it formally existed”, something that only happened in 1977 as Resolução n.º70/97 (2.ª série), DR N.º 170, 25-07-1977.

Why you may ask, after my original reluctance I am writing now?

The answer may sound strange and surprise you. The answer is: Democracy. The Emeritus status gives one the opportunity to have more time to be “It is not. Democracy is how sensitive to one´s social surroundings than when one is living a busy bench the GABBA Program has been life in a research laboratory. run since its inaugural Presently Portugal considers itself a Democracy, and it certainly is, but… address.” when it comes to the way things happen and function, the tendency is to plan from up to down without hearing what people at the bottom have to say. Because there is freedom to say anything, because people have the right to vote freely, the general feeling is that in a democracy that is sufficient. It is not. Democracy is how the GABBA Program has been run since its inaugural address.

“With time an increasing number of projects is either being done in Portugal or in joint ventures between Portuguese and nonPortuguese labs.”

“Democracy at work for 20 years. The results are beyond anything anybody could have anticipated.”

Given equal opportunity to the citizens that enter the program after the interviews, each and every one of the candidates has the freedom to be him/herself. Nobody tells him, or her, you are going to do what we tell you or allow you to do. You have the freedom to do what you choose anywhere in the world. If by a happy chance we, the Portuguese labs are sufficiently good for competing for your interest, splendid. With time an increasing number of projects is either being done in Portugal or in joint ventures between Portuguese and non-Portuguese labs.

Image: GABBA students and guests during the release of the book “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

Given equal opportunities and freedom the Program created hundreds of different individuals, with different interests and contributions. Democracy at work for 20 years. The results are beyond anything anybody could have anticipated. For the quality and variety of leaders and PIs that

developed and can be found in research institutes, universities and companies within Portugal and abroad. A kind of complete opposite to the academic endogamy recently “A kind of complete opposite to diagnosed in Portugal by a study of the Direcção Geral das Estatisticas da Educação e Ciencia (September 21st 2017), with results identical to an the academic endogamy earlier Study done in Spain in 2010, that led the writer, Esperanza Vitoria recently diagnosed in Hernandez to ask “¿Síndrome del sapo hervido en la universidad?” Portugal” [if a frog is put in hot water it immediately jumps out; if the water temperature is increased gradually, the frog doesn’t notice, and will not jump out, instead it will boil.]

“We are rather proud to have contributed with a postgraduate program that is the living expression of a Democracy in the country.”

I am not too sure what a frog syndrome means, but it does not sound nice. It seems to mean resistance to change. The academic endogamy represents precisely a country that despite thinking it is a Democracy - in one of its most important education entities, the University - it still not is. Something that may be imbedded in its history as reviewed by Angela Salgueiro in a PhD thesis on ‘Science and University in Portuguese First Republic’ (Salgueiro, 2015). In 1926 in the period of the Military Dictatorship a diploma of 1918 was reformed and the new status of the University Instruction was set up implementing a regime of studies structured in such a way that it limited the freedom of frequencies. The reform created the various levels of professors from full professors, to assistant professors, so free professors and free assistants. Some more liberal professors denounced the authoritarian character of the reform published without hearing the Schools. (in Salgueiro, 2015)

Image: GABBA founders Professor Maria de Sousa and Maria da Conceição Magalhães in the release of “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

We are rather proud to have contributed with a postgraduate program that is the living expression of a Democracy in the country. Regretfully not many of our PhDs have managed to contribute to break the prevailing endogamy. I just hope the future, in this case, will not come to reproduce the past. The future, however, is in your hands and all the signs are that it is in good hands. Maria de Sousa GABBA Founder In S. Pedro de Moel, September 25, 2017 & Lisbon, October 24, 2017. Reference

Salgueiro, A. 2015 PhD thesis “A Ciência na I Republica” FCSH, Nova University of Lisbon.

The most important assets are truly the students

Alexandre Carmo

In the end of 1996, I returned to Portugal having done my PhD and postdocs abroad. GABBA was just starting and as I was invited to give a class to the first GABBA students on the topic of my research, and having continued to do so throughout these 20 years, it means that if you are a GABBA or an ATG, we must have sat together for some reason or another. I surely have stood before you in a class room or amphitheater to discuss the wonders of signal transduction and cell activation, but as I was coordinator for 4 years and director of the program for a further 5, with nearly half of you I have indeed sat to discuss your aspirations and dreams of a wonderful prospective career. It all started for you with an interview, which I believe is still a bit of a puzzle after all these years. You still may wonder why you were selected, what qualities, capacities or peculiarities you showed that others did not, what characteristics were the “Professors” looking for. Honestly, I can assure you that I still do not know, either. On our side, we did not have formal meetings to discuss what specificities we should be searching for on a prospective GABBA student every year. Nonetheless, we had some unwritten understandings that seem to have worked pretty well thus far. To preserve this successful formula for the next twenty years, I will of course not reveal it here. Sorry guys…

“My time as coordinator and director coincided with a sharp decline of the economic My time as coordinator and director coincided with a sharp decline of the conditions in Europe” economic conditions in Europe, with Portugal having lost 24 % of its GDP between 2008 and 2015, and adding to this, also a disinvestment in science that represented a decline on the expenditure on research and development from its peak in 2009 of 1.584 % of the GDP to a low in 2015 of only 1.279 % of GDP (a decrease of nearly 20 % of a GDP that decreased by almost a quarter in that period). All this translated in an actual decrease of the FCT budget of about 20 % from its peak in 2010 to its low in 2015. Believe me, it is just a coincidence, not at all my fault.

“Difficult times should mean imposing intelligent measures to minimize the negative economic impact (…)”

Difficult times should mean imposing intelligent measures to minimize the negative economic impact, including judicious measures to select the best areas to invest in (in which I include education and research), and GABBA with its proven track record should have been a sure bet. Nevertheless, it was also difficult, I believe, to justify in front of all other programs and resource-demanding educational projects that GABBA would be treated preferentially. It may thus seem understandable that we had to compete in open calls to obtain the necessary funds. We made it, but it was no surprise that the number of studentships awarded to the program decreased from 12 to 9, with the core financial support being cut by 75 %.

Image: Professor Alexandre do Carmo taking notes during the release of the book “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

“(…) it was not always a bed of roses.”

By then, we could be seen just like any other program, institutionalized, accredited by the A3ES and all that, and just like we had been, in my opinion, long ignored by the University and even by the Faculties involved (which, nevertheless, meant that we could keep our identity and autonomy), we now became an appetizing program, a potential target for a take-over, there’s money involved that can be controlled by whoever wins the prize. I was asked by the ATG to give my personal account of my time as GABBA Director, and trust me, it was not always a bed of roses. Given the constant institutional pressures and my inability and impossibility (I am not Professor de carreira da UP) to deal with them, I had to resign from my post. We made the imposed concessions and I was not at all happy with the final solution, so in a way my departure made it all easy for everybody. I confess that in those days I had a pessimistic view of what GABBA was turning into and I saw no future for it, at least I did not see how we were going to keep being distinct from all other programs and I feared that we were going to lose our uniqueness and the outstanding internationally recognized quality. I have to say that I have now reversed my opinion almost completely. Not because I recognize any benefits of the institutionalization, or of a new architecture, or any smarts moves we may have made, or anything that may have arisen

“our uniqueness and the outstanding internationally recognized quality”

from our side. I have stood in the sidelines for two years and that distance makes it all oh so much clearer.

Image: Professor Alexandre do Carmo during the release of the book “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

What I realize is that in a program such as GABBA, the most important assets are truly the students. It does not really matter that we have that much better faculty, that much more money, classrooms with flower scents or the best coffee (well, this could help a bit). What makes GABBA great, and that I trust will keep it in the right path, despite all the other institutional partners, are really the students. I can only give credit to you all for keeping the quality of the program always at the highest level, like no other program in Portugal (e arredores) and for never giving up. My sincere and most genuine thanks. Alexandre Carmo GABBA Professor and former GABBA Director Porto, November 2, 2017

GABBA 20

António Amorim

Good to know that GABBA is that old: I never thought I would see the Program reaching this far in its long journey. In fact, when Maria de Sousa catalyzed the merging – and the upgrading – of four MSc courses I never thought it would work for so long. It all started with its birth. It was highly dependent on the lucky chance of having a highly dynamic Rector at the U Porto steering (Alberto Amaral) who signed a very unusual document officially creating GABBA (Regulamento do Programa Graduado em Biologia Básica e Aplicada, DR nº170, 25/07/1997). Indeed, among other unorthodox features of it, one stands out: §

“And immediately a specific word comes to my mind: fragility. “

The coordinating commission members are nominated: Maria da Conceição Magalhães, António Amorim, Maria de Sousa e Manuel Sobrinho Simões! (Currently I am the only non-retired founding parent, but only for 5 more years…)

Moreover, it comprised both MSc and PhD graduation and – last but not least – the biennial evaluation by an external commission, a key feature of the Program, well ahead the current accreditation requirements. Many waters have washed our shore since then and although I was asked by ATG to provide some reflections on the program’s history I will not go much further on it (a kind of history is already published (15 years in the life of a graduate program) and I prefer to correspond right away to the other request: my opinion on the difficulties faced by, and still facing, the Program. And immediately a specific word comes to my mind: fragility. This fragility comes in many flavors and is due to a variety of causes. Let me then try to enumerate and briefly analyze a couple of them. GABBA dependence on the funding is excruciating, since two of GABBA fundamental features require extra funding and/or a different way of applying it:

§ §

recruiting the best possible teachers/ researchers worldwide; and to select locally a set of students not having already a thesis project or supervisor, but instead wishing to expand their scientific horizons before choosing a definite research path

Image: Professor António Amorim during the release of the book “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

“Both features are in contradiction with the mainstream ideology, policy and interests of the funding agencies and universities.”

Both features are in contradiction with the mainstream ideology, policy and interests of the funding agencies and universities. As Gulbenkian Foundation stopped the support given to GABBA during its initial years we were left with a single national source of funding: FCT. This governmental agency although initiating a few years ago an open call for postgraduate program financial support (to which GABBA has successfully applied) has revised this policy, apparently returning to the individual grants of students with defined project theses and supervisors. If this reversion is to be confirmed, it would imply (as nearly did this year) GABBA shutdown, as applicants to GABBA cannot apply to the national call in the absence of predefined thesis, supervisor, and institutional affiliation. The funding of researchers/teachers external to the University to which GABBA must be affiliated (U Porto) bring obviously an undisguised animosity from University teachers and ruling bodies, who see the recruitment of teachers from both national institutes and abroad as unnecessary and conflicting with their own aspirations. GABBA governance has been another persistent problem. Its uniqueness among existing Graduate programs and the absence of a postgraduate school in U Porto (or any post-graduation policy) allied to the fragmentation of the University into a federation of almost entirely autonomous schools

(14, out of which 8 have some kind of ‘biological’ affinity), is an evident source of troubles and parochial conflicts. There are many more weaknesses, but I think to have outlined the major ones. No need to say that I consider close to miraculous that the Program has opened calls all these years (with a single exception: an edition I cannot recall the year at the moment) and is – if not in good health – at least surviving. Great is the number of those who have in one way or another made GABBA thrive, too many to be listed here, but I must open an exception to ATG, for letting this old stubborn grumpy share his worries. I wish they were just that and I hope – and I’ll do my best to keep alive and kicking. António Amorim GABBA Founder, professor and current Director Porto, September 9, 2017

It has been a great honor

Catarina Carona

Over the last 12 years, I’ve been part of this extraordinary program that ‘produced’ some of the best scientists in Portugal and abroad, and for that I feel very honored. I feel as honored today by this invitation to write some words in the ATG newsletter, as I did when the Coordinating Committee invited me to work for GABBA 12 years ago. Throughout these years there were several obstacles that challenged the existence and the operating mode of the program, but against many odds we’ve manage to survive until the 21st edition, which will start very soon. This is for me the major success.

Image: Catarina with Professor Maria during the release of the book “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

“It’s a never-ending fight against an inflexible system, which is closed in itself.”

I would say that our main obstacles were the Bologna process, and all the institutional bureaucracy that has been growing enormously every year, and menacing the independence and quality of our “product”. It’s a neverending fight against an inflexible system, which is closed in itself. With the tenacity of great people, that founded and still coordinate this program, and the help of an excellent group of professors, GABBA is an example that good, extraordinary good things still happen. And that gives us all hope for the future.

For me GABBA is all about the people, in particular the students: they make it all worth it… all the least interesting parts of the job and the big struggles with bureaucracy and funding, at the end of the day, are overcome with their smiles and gratitude… I feel rewarded just to know that I’m a facilitator, that I make a difference in their lives.

Image: During the dinner at the annual GABBA meeting in 2011.

Being part of such an amazing group of people, from the students to the teaching staff, and not forgetting the fantastic network of ATG, is one of the most fulfilling aspects of my professional and even personal life. It has been a great honor! Catarina Carona Secretary of the GABBA Program Porto, September 26, 2017

20 Years of successful GABBA but with an uncertain future

Claudio Sunkel

It was the 1996-1997 academic year when scientists at the Roslin Institute

“(…) when scientists at the Roslin Institute in Edinburg cloned Dolly, and for the first time since GMOs in the 80’s, society took serious notice of research in Biology and woke up to a new reality.”

in Edinburg cloned Dolly, and for the first time since GMOs in the 80’s, society took serious notice of research in Biology and woke up to a new reality. This same year, under the guidance of Maria de Sousa, the merger of master courses at the University of Porto, lead to the implementation of a new PhD program in Biology, the Graduate Program in Areas of Basic and Applied Biology or GABBA. Over the past 20 years GABBA has become a prestigious brand and students in the program carry a seal of quality internationally. Although, I was in Porto at the time busily working on the discovery of genes required for the regulation cell division and building the new Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMC) at the University of Porto, and I knew very well the work that Maria had done on the MSc in Immunology at ICBAS, I was not directly involved in the design or early stages of the GABBA program. There were 4 faculties and at least two research institutes involved in this project, something completely unheard off in a country where the rule was to divide and conquer. This was the second PhD program to be developed in Portugal in the Biological Sciences and its aim was to provide a platform for the selection of 12 top candidates national or foreign. The program would then give them 8 months of intensive courses with Portuguese or foreign scientists across an array of modern areas in biology, so that the students could then choose their own path amongst the wide variety of topics provided during this first period. At the same time, Maria managed to convince our funding agency, FCT, to provide 12 fellowships so that the students could do their thesis either in Portugal or abroad, however in reality, most students chose to do their thesis work in the most prestigious labs abroad. The design of the program was not new but made sense at the time given that Portugal was still trying hard to reach the minimum standards of international science and apart for some notable exceptions, much still needed to be done. So, bringing in foreign scientists or Portuguese

“major step towards raising standards and to promote internationalization of our scientific system”

working abroad to teach and eventually accept our students in their institutions, would be a major step towards raising standards and to promote internationalization of our scientific system. The outcome has indeed been extremely positive since not only many GABBA students have actually returned to Portugal and are in top positions in their field but also many that stayed abroad and have reached heights in the academic pyramid of a number of leading scientific countries. GABBA wanted to help promoting the biological sciences in Portugal and over these last 20 years it has do so with remarkable success.

However, it is a pity that some level of short sightedness from the part of our politicians and eventually our institutions of higher education, has not taken the advantage of allowing more GABBA students to come back to Portugal and continue their careers in a country that still today desperately needs its most qualified assets to contribute to further its development. What about all the investment that went in their training? What about the international experience and networking that has been created over these 20 years? How is it possible that we cannot create the right conditions for most of them to come back? Now, at the new i3S institute for research and Innovation in Health we battled constantly to give some of these young scientists a chance to make it in their home country but unfortunately it is clear that we are failing. The policies that had been put in place initially with the Ciência Program and which were then followed by the FCT Investigator program, were a step in the right direction but as in most cases that depend on political will, these programmes no longer exist and institutes in Portugal are left with little chance of renewing their staff and bringing new “Now, at the new i3S institute ideas to a science that for research and Innovation in is moving fast and Health we battled constantly which we must to give some of these young scientists a chance to make it in accompany if we are to be competitive. their home country but unfortunately it is clear that we are failing.”

Image: Professor Claudio Sunkel during the release of the book “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

Unfortunately, the Universities have also not been quick to grasp the chance of renewing their staff and every day are losing opportunities of bring back top-quality scientists. This contrasts with the GABBA program, which against all odds managed to continue for these last 20 years to be a brand of excellence, with proven results and great dedication from all involved. In closing, I just feel that we have not failed our students. We have given them the opportunity to raise to the international arena and perform at the highest level. However, has not the country somehow failed to embrace these new generations of young scientists that could help us to consolidate science in Portugal? Moreover, with the reluctant renewal of the funding for only one more edition of the program, 2017-2018, are we not jeopardizing once more the future by not consolidating what has been an outstanding experience? After 30 years of working in this country I cannot help to wonder why is it not possible to consolidate the best practices so that future generations can readily benefit from all the accumulated experience but must always start all over again and perhaps go through it all over again. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have given them the opportunity to raise to the international arena and perform at the highest level. However, has not the country somehow failed to embrace these new generations of young scientists that could help us to consolidate science in Portugal?â&#x20AC;?

Nevertheless, to all GABBA students who are out there and who I know truly believe in making a future here, please do not give up. Claudio Sunkel GABBA Coordinator Director of the IBMC, University of Porto Porto, November 6, 2017

GABBA: the Model of a Transversal Initiative

Fátima Carneiro

Filipa asked for few words about my experience in GABBA program

“Contrary to most graduate programs, thematic-driven and/or institution-based, GABBA was the model of a transversal initiative”

(involvement, challenges and achievements). My experience is shorter than the 20 years we are celebrating now. I joined the Coordination Committee in 2001, proud of the invitation and highly motivated. It was the opportunity to collaborate in a graduate program that was so special, so different from other programs in Portugal.

Image: Professor Fátima Carneiro with former GABBA student Susana Valente during the release of the book “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

Contrary to most graduate programs, thematic-driven and/or institutionbased, GABBA was the model of a transversal initiative, gathering different Faculties and Research Institutes, professors and students coming from different places in Portugal, and abroad, with different scientific backgrounds. At the beginning there was no office, there was not a Secretary and the program was not registered in any Faculty. The coordination of each edition rotated among the three Faculties engaged in the program. Students were given total freedom to choose a research topic and mentor(s), in Portugal and/or abroad. The secretarial support of Carina Carona diminished the burden of administrative tasks and contributed for communication with and among the students of different editions. “Looking back, one wonders how this was achieved.”

Looking back, one wonders how this was achieved. Prof. Maria de Sousa used to comment "it is one figment of our imagination". GABBA survived and resisted to different sorts of difficulties (decreased funding along time) 23

and bureaucratic demands (the program was institutionally registered on the pretext to adapt to “Bologna”). The major challenge is to find out how to keep the spirit in a different organizational setting, under the risk of losing targeted funding. The major achievements stem from the quality of the learning atmosphere and the quality of the students, and can be measured by their scientific contributions (many outstanding) and professional outcomes in different fields. I am very proud to belong to the GABBA “family” (and I am sure that I am not alone).

Image: Students during the release of “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

Fátima Carneiro GABBA Coordinator Porto, September 30, 2017

Who would have anticipated 20 years ago?

Manuel Sobrinho Simões

It is always nice to celebrate an anniversary, even realizing that such specific date usually reflects the number of fingers in each hand. This holds particularly true when we like the celebrating creature and we repeat the fiesta every five years with a reinforcement in the tenths. (God knows if this is English and if the phrase means what I am trying to convey). Anyhow, I (we) like very much the different ingredients GABBA is made of. Generations of students and Catarina in the first place, members of the Faculty and of the Executive Boards in the intermediate level and the founding mothers and fathers (to avoid parents) at the basis. Being, together with Maria de Sousa, Conceição Magalhães and António Amorim, one of the latter, I must confess I feel proud like hell. Image: Professor Sobrinho Simões during the release of the book “GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program”.

Who would anticipate 20 years ago the successes GABBA has achieved? I do not know all the reasons for the happy history we are celebrating but I am sure the quality of the GABBA individuals at large and the exceptional quality of Maria in particular were the driving forces for the whole thing. Manuel Sobrinho Simões GABBA Founder and Coordinator Director of the IPATIMUP, University of Porto Porto, September 25, 2017 ***

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take a look at the symposium of the GABBA 20th edition

GABBA 20 Symposium Nano 2 Universe Vanessa Pires

July 21, 2017 was an important day for us, the 20

edition of GABBA. It

was the day of our “Nano 2 Universe” Symposium, when we illustrated how we believe the world should perceive Science and knowledge. For us, the key to the comprehension of the universe seems to be the understanding of its smallest components without losing sight of the big picture. This is the reason why the theme behind the GABBA Symposium 2017 was knowledge integration ranging from the “nano”-point of view to the universe. “Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise - even in their own field”. Isaac Asimov, The Roving Mind As Asimov once said, an interdisciplinary approach is crucial to solve some of today’s prominent scientific questions. Having this in mind, we proposed a voyage from the nano-scale to the cosmic dimensions. A journey that was galvanized by the presence of 5 outstanding researchers.

Image: GABBA 20th edition students and professors during the GABBA July 2017 symposium Nano 2 Universe, Porto.

Claus Azzalin, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, opened the Symposium with the “Nano Session” and his work on the molecular interplay between telomeres and long noncoding RNA. Showing us the importance of telomere integrity since features of telomere instability are found in several human diseases, including cancer and ageingrelated syndromes.

In the “Cell Session”, Floris Foijer, European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA), told us about Karyotype heterogeneity in ageing-associated diseases. He talked about chromosome instability (CIN) and its role in aneuploidy and cancer, introducing us to single-cell sequencing technology an essential tool for cancer treatment stratification in the near future. Irene Miguel-Aliaga, Imperial College London, talked about her work in sex differences in organ size and plasticity in the “Organ Session”. How the gut has to talk and listen in order to maintain homeostasis and respond to environmental information and how there is a sexual dimorphism in this process in flies.

Image: GABBA director, Prof Amorim addressing the audience during the Nano 2 Universe Symposium.

In the “Organism Session”, Moises Mallo, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, showed us his work in how different body shapes are built during vertebrate development using only a similar set of regulators. And how variations in the activity of these factors during vertebrate evolution played a role in the high diversity in body shapes observed among vertebrates. Jean-Pierre de Vera, German Aerospace Center, closed the Symposium with the “Universe Session” and his work on strategies on how to search for extraterrestrial life - Astrobiological Space Exploration. Since there are challenges in the near future concerning space missions to study the habitability of Mars and the icy moons of the Jovian and Saturnian system, he showed us the importance of the work performed in planetary analog field sites (polar and deep-sea research) in combination with lab performed planetary simulations as well as space research in this search for extraterrestrial life.

The aim of this symposium was to inspire you to grow wise in all directions of knowledge, and realize that, as Asimov said, “knowledge is indivisible”. Photographs by Rita Canário

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ATG: A City of Knowledge. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take another look at a few of its citizens and some of their knowledge published since our last issue!

Part I. Knowledge Catarina Seabra & Ana Rita Araújo

In this edition of the ATG Newsletter, we are proud to share with this community the great scientific contributions of the GABBA students and alumni, since the last newsletter edition. Among the long list of publications, there are several articles that were published in prestigious high impact journals (original publications as first or last author) that we will highlight here:

GENETICS & GENE REGULATION

“Their results overturn existing models for Polycomb recruitment and establish precedence for H2AK119u1 in initiating Polycomb domain formation”

Mafalda Almeida, GABBA 15th, completed her graduate studies at the University of Oxford, UK, where she explored epigenetics’ processes. Mafalda has made exciting findings published in Science. This paper focus on chromatin remodeling and shows that the noncanonical Polycomb group RING finger 3/5 (PCGF3/5)-PRC1 complex initiates recruitment of both PRC1 and PRC2 in response to Xist RNA expression. Their results overturn existing models for Polycomb recruitment and establish precedence for H2AK119u1 in initiating Polycomb domain formation in a physiological context.

Almeida, M., Pintacuda, G., Masui, O., Koseki, Y., Gdula, M., Cerase, A., … Brockdorff, N. (2017). PCGF3/5-PRC1 initiates Polycomb recruitment in X chromosome inactivation. Science (New York, N.Y.), 356(6342), 1081–1084. Seabra, C. M., Szoko, N., Erdin, S., Ragavendran, A., Stortchevoi, A., Maciel, P., … Natowicz, M. R. (2017). A novel microduplication of ARID1B : Clinical, genetic, and proteomic findings. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A, 173(9), 2478–2484.

CELL BIOLOGY AND DISEASE

“SIRT2 attenuates oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction and improves insulin sensitivity in hepatocytes”

Vera Lemos, GABBA 16th, is a graduate student at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. She has a background in Nutritional Sciences and has always been interested in issues regarding metabolism. In this paper Vera and the team suggested a novel function for hepatic SIRT2 in regulation of insulin sensitivity opening new opportunities to prevent or treat type 2 diabetes. Lemos, V., Oliveira, R. M., Naia, L., Szego, E., Ramos, E., Pinho, S., … Gomes, P. (2017). The NAD+-dependent deacetylase SIRT2 attenuates oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction and improves insulin sensitivity in hepatocytes. Human Molecular Genetics.

Lima, A. C., Jung, M., Rusch, J., Usmani, A., Lopes, A. M., & Conrad, D. F. (2017). A Standardized Approach for Multispecies Purification of Mammalian Male Germ Cells by Mechanical Tissue Dissociation and Flow Cytometry. Journal of Visualized Experiments : JoVE, (125). Neves, J., Leitz, D., Kraut, S., Brandenberger, C., Agrawal, R., Weissmann, N., … Muckenthaler, M. U. (2017). Disruption of the Hepcidin/Ferroportin Regulatory System Causes Pulmonary Iron Overload and Restrictive Lung Disease. EBioMedicine, 20, 230–239.

Silva, A. M., Almeida, M. I., Teixeira, J. H., Maia, A. F., Calin, G. A., Barbosa, M. A., & Santos, S. G. (2017). Dendritic Cell-derived Extracellular Vesicles mediate Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cell recruitment. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1667.

PARASITOLOGY

Liliana Mancio-Silva, GABBA 7th, is a Research Scientist at MIT, “Plasmodium blood-stage USA, working with a team focused on liver research to investigate hostparasites actively respond to host dietary calorie alterations” parasite interactions during liver-stage malaria. From her postdoctoral research at iMM, Lisbon, Liliana has published in Nature, showing that Plasmodium blood-stage parasites actively respond to host dietary calorie alterations through rearrangement of their transcriptome accompanied by substantial adjustment of their multiplication rate. Overall, these crucial findings revealed a key parasite nutrient-sensing mechanism that is critical for modulating parasite replication and virulence.

Mancio-Silva, L., Slavic, K., Grilo Ruivo, M. T., Grosso, A. R., Modrzynska, K. K., Vera, I. M., … Mota, M. M. (2017). Nutrient sensing modulates malaria parasite virulence. Nature, 547(7662), 213–216. Fonseca, A. M., Quinto, L., Jimenez, A., Gonzalez, R., Bardaji, A., Maculuve, S., … Mayor, A. (2017). Multiplexing detection of IgG against Plasmodium falciparum pregnancy-specific antigens. PloS One, 12(7), e0181150. Bradic, M., Warring, S. D., Tooley, G. E., Scheid, P., Secor, W. E., Land, K. M., … Carlton, J. M. (2017). Genetic Indicators of Drug Resistance in the Highly Repetitive Genome of Trichomonas vaginalis. Genome Biology and Evolution, 9(6), 1658–1672.

“neuromedin U in mice is a fast and potent regulator of type 2 innate immunity”

Huylmans, A. K., Macon, A., & Vicoso, B. (2017). Global Dosage Compensation Is Ubiquitous in Lepidoptera, but Counteracted by the Masculinization of the Z Chromosome. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 34(10), 2637–2649.

IMMUNOLOGY AND INFECTION

Henrique Veiga-Fernandes, an alumnus from the 1st GABBA edition, is now a Senior Investigator at Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal. Henrique’s group has recently contributed to the

immunology field showing, in a recent Nature article, that neuromedin U in mice is a fast and potent regulator of type 2 innate immunity in the context of a functional neuron-ILC2 unit. Their extraordinary work revealed that neuron-ILC2 cell units confer immediate tissue protection through coordinated neuroimmune sensory responses.

Cardoso, V., Chesne, J., Ribeiro, H., Garcia-Cassani, B., Carvalho, T., Bouchery, T., … Veiga-Fernandes, H. (2017). Neuronal regulation of type 2 innate lymphoid cells via neuromedin U. Nature, 549(7671), 277–281. Gupta, V., Vasanthakrishnan, R. B., Siva-Jothy, J., Monteith, K. M., Brown, S. P., & Vale, P. F. (2017). The route of infection determines Wolbachia antibacterial protection in Drosophila. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 284(1856).

“map all neural activity for all possible movements that an animal can do”

Gupta, V., & Vale, P. F. (2017). Nonlinear disease tolerance curves reveal distinct components of host responses to viral infection. Royal Society Open Science, 4(7), 170342.

NEUROSCIENCES

Rui Costa, from the 1st GABBA edition that is now a Professor of Neurosciences at Columbia University, published another amazing story in Neuron led by researchers at Columbia University and the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon. Using microendoscopic imaging, they could map all neural activity for all possible movements that an animal can do. This happened in a structure called striatum that has a local organization that encodes action beyond movement speed.

“in tumors 23-33% of the proteins have copy-number changes attenuated via degradation.” Klaus, A., Martins, G. J., Paixao, V. B., Zhou, P., Paninski, L., & Costa, R. M. (2017). The Spatiotemporal Organization of the Striatum Encodes Action Space. Neuron, 95(5), 1171–1180.e7.

CANCER RESEARCH

Pedro Beltrão is currently a group leader at EMBL-EBI and is an alumnus from the 6th GABBA edition. Pedro and his team recently published in Cell Systems that in tumors 23-33% of the proteins have copy-number changes attenuated via degradation. These proteins are targeted for degradation via post-transcriptional regulation, highlighting the importance of post-transcriptional mechanisms in cancer that allow cells to cope with their altered genomes.

Goncalves, E., Fragoulis, A., Garcia-Alonso, L., Cramer, T., Saez-Rodriguez, J., & Beltrao, P. (2017). Widespread Post-transcriptional Attenuation of Genomic Copy-Number Variation in Cancer. Cell Systems. Neto, A., & Ceol, C. J. (2017). Melanoma-associated GRM3 variants dysregulate melanosome trafficking and cAMP signaling. Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research.

Guest, S. K., Ribas, R., Pancholi, S., Nikitorowicz-Buniak, J., Simigdala, N., Dowsett, M., … Martin, L.-A. (2016). Src Is a Potential Therapeutic Target in Endocrine-Resistant Breast Cancer Exhibiting Low Estrogen ReceptorMediated Transactivation. PloS One, 11(6), e0157397.

Ferro, S., Azevedo-Silva, J., Casal, M., Corte-Real, M., Baltazar, F., & Preto, A. (2016). Characterization of acetate transport in colorectal cancer cells and potential therapeutic implications. Oncotarget, 7(43), 70639–70653. Korsak, B., Almeida, G. M., Rocha, S., Pereira, C., Mendes, N., Osorio, H., … Oliveira, C. (2017). Porphyrin modified trastuzumab improves efficacy of HER2 targeted photodynamic therapy of gastric cancer. International Journal of Cancer, 141(7), 1478–1489. Zucca, L. E., Morini Matushita, M. A., da Silva Oliveira, R. J., Scapulatempo-Neto, C., de Lima, M. A., Ribeiro, G. G., … Reis, R. M. (2017). Expression of tyrosine kinase receptor AXL is associated with worse outcome of metastatic renal cell carcinomas treated with sunitinib. Urologic Oncology. Silva-Oliveira, R. J., Melendez, M., Martinho, O., Zanon, M. F., de Souza Viana, L., Carvalho, A. L., & Reis, R. M. (2017). AKT can modulate the in vitro response of HNSCC cells to irreversible EGFR inhibitors. Oncotarget, 8(32), 53288–53301. Oliveira, M. L., Akkapeddi, P., Alcobia, I., Almeida, A. R., Cardoso, B. A., Fragoso, R., … Barata, J. T. (2017). From the outside, from within: Biological and therapeutic relevance of signal transduction in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cellular Signalling, 38, 10–25. Evangelista, A. F., Zanon, M. F., Carloni, A. C., de Paula, F. E., Morini, M. A., Ferreira-Neto, M., … Reis, R. M. (2017). Detection of ALK fusion transcripts in FFPE lung cancer samples by NanoString technology. BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 17(1), 86.

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Part II. Citizens Joana Wilton João Taborda Barata, PhD

GABBA 1st edition, class 1996 Group leader at iMM João Lobo Antunes, ERC grantee

As a member of the GABBA 1 , what are your thoughts on the st

GABBA program then and now? I’m afraid I cannot make this comparison if I am to be honest and rigorous. I don’t have enough knowledge of the current curricula of the program, for instance, to have a concrete grasp of how things evolved through time. As the first ones, we were guinea pigs in this wonderful experiment, and I hope we were useful in providing results that helped better shape and fine-tune “What I can certainly say, the program. What I can certainly say, quite proud and shamelessly, is that quite proud and shamelessly, the GABBA program always had the quality of selecting and educating is that the GABBA program people that were highly independent and capable of pursuing their dreams always had the quality of and ambitions. This is why, no matter what changes, strategic or selecting and educating circumstantial (for instance forced by FCT policies), may have occurred or will people that were highly independent and capable of occur in the future, GABBA will always keep its trademark: the nurturing of a pursuing their dreams and true scientific, inquisitive culture. ambitions.”

BOSTON LISBON 1996 2017

After your PhD, you trained as a postdoc and ultimately became a PI at iMM. How did you prepare for both transitions? By working the best I could. My reasoning was always that if the science I produced was interesting enough it would eventually open up the space for my own independent lab, sooner or later, somewhere. I returned from my PhD work in Harvard for family reasons and because I genuinely wanted to know whether I could do well in Portugal, where conditions were certainly tougher than in the US. I was ready to leave if things didn’t work out, but I wasn’t willing to do that without putting up a real fight. So, I did most of my postdoc at iMM, although I must confess I spent short periods of time abroad at Pasteur and at the University Medical Center in Utrecht in the meantime, which were really important for my maturation. It happened that around “Anyway, science itself was when I was finishing my postdoc, iMM opened an international call, with an international jury, headed by Prof. John Skehel, and I was fortunate enough my main concern and ‘strategic’ preparation. Seems to be hired in the end. So, not much preparation except, of course, for my a bit nerdy and naïve?” seminar and the interview with the jury! Those are the things one should better prepare, and carefully. Anyway, science itself was my main concern and ‘strategic’ preparation. Seems a bit nerdy and naïve? Maybe it is, but it worked out for me. In fact, it still is what pushes me forward, this feeling that what I have done so far is too little, too irrelevant, this urgency of finding something better and more interesting than before.

What challenges did you find during the implementation of your research group? Things were quite different when I started my own lab back in 2006. There was a strong sense of hope and optimism among the scientific community in Portugal. The funding from FCT was strong enough to allow for real selection of the most competitive proposals, without much feeling of randomness. Besides, a lot of young researchers had returned not long ago, or were just returning, from abroad to establish their labs here and there was this sense of excitement, dignity and challenge in performing the best science possible in our own country. A sense of positive competition, that I think still prevails amongst us, not the typical envy that characterizes the mediocre - instead you want the others to be excellent so that you compete with them and push “The country is literally on up your own limits in doing so. In other words, the main challenges were scientific - and that’s the best you can look for. It is regrettable that funding the verge of wasting two started dropping down precisely when the overall quality of science in the decades or more of smart investment in science if things country increased. We have top quality researchers and now national funding don’t change soon.” is more erratic and scarce than ever. The country is literally on the verge of wasting two decades or more of smart investment in science if things don’t

change soon. We get prestigious international grants and have ERC grantees like never before. But no country can aspire to excellence and to be competitive internationally in science and technology (and to gain back from the mid- and long-term positive impacts on society this will have) without “But no country can aspire to strong and regular internal financial support to scientific research. Look at excellence and to be the US, UK, Germany, France, The Netherlands, they all have strong national competitive internationally in science funding. That’s why they are so competent in accessing international science and technology (…) funds. In fact, the irony is that we are more competitive than ever, and that without strong and regular internal financial support to is the obvious result and merit of science policies that were consistent for many years. scientific research.”

As a PI and team manager, can you share any stories about mentoring early-career scientists? It’s one single, long and mostly enjoyable story, with different chapters, lots of laughing together, planning, discussing and getting really happy with some results, troubleshooting and complete disappointment with others, understanding different personalities, different ways of trying to get the best out of people, of stimulating them, of cheering them up and making them believe in their work when things get tough (oh yes, and we know how often they do), the lab meetings and lab retreats, and lab dinners, and the team spirit that I see they have, and the critical importance of keeping your mind ready and open to surprise. And, yes, the splendid feeling of seeing someone maturing into a “grown up” researcher on their own merit, with perhaps a little bit of my help. It’s quite cool. A suivre…

“GABBA generated an enormous capital of knowledge spread throughout the world, spread throughout many research areas (…)”

What is your take on the importance of alumni for the next GABBA generations? I’m not sure. It may be none or it may be tremendous. That largely depends on the strategies defined by those that currently direct the program and on their vision for the future as well as on the pro-activity of the alumni in returning some of what the GABBA offered them back to the program. GABBA generated an enormous capital of knowledge spread throughout the world, spread throughout many research areas, highly qualified, rich and diverse. Many GABBA alumni are now independent researchers, leading their own labs and performing outstanding science in the best institutions, or have key roles outside academia, in the industry, working in start-ups or in big pharma, or in science communication and so on. This capital of soft skill and cutting-edge scientific knowledge is out there and it should benefit the next GABBA generations. This can be done in many different and creative ways and I hope it is, if not already at least in the near future. The ATG newsletter is a great example of engaging both current GABBA students and 41

alumni and promoting their contact. I’m sure there are other formal and informal ways of using the experience of GABBA alumni to the advantage of current students.

What advice would you give to students starting next January?

“they [the students] will certainly find something new, something that nobody has seen before in the history of human kind, and will share it with the rest of us isn’t this tremendously exciting and generous?

None. Smart people don’t really need them or will get them from brighter and better people than me. I just hope they have fun and enjoy the ride. In fact, I’m pretty sure they will. How could they not? Whatever the area they will choose to explore, they will certainly find something new, something that nobody has seen before in the history of human kind, and will share it with the rest of us - isn’t this tremendously exciting and generous?

Favorite Sunday activity: Sleeping late Dream vacation: Let me sleep on it and I’ll tell you next time. Favorite non-Portuguese cuisine: Never really thought about it. There’s so much good food everywhere. Anyway, on the most memorable dinner I’ve ever had was in Italy, so let’s say Italian food. Sport: s… lot’s of sss. I’ve played football, tennis, basketball regularly, now I mostly cycle with the family and like watching all sorts of sports on TV. I remember watching frequently on cable, years ago, Australian rules football - an awkward mix of rugby and soccer played in an oval pitch with goal referees dressed as if they were going to a wedding. Bizarre and fun to watch! TV show that you binge watched recently: House of cards How do you commute? This will sound snobbish perhaps, but is a 5 minute drive/20 minute walk commuting? Android or iOS: AndriOSd (I really don’t care much, currently Android) Pipet tip box usage method (in order, the ones in same area or random): Scary… this question highlights perfectly for how long I haven’t worked at the bench!!! It was probably in order but I may be wrong… Friday night drink: Here’s another scary (although rather pleasurable) sign of times: it used to be beer, now it’s a good red wine (after the beer!).

Joana Simões Correia, PhD

Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Exogenus Therapeutics SA GABBA 8th edition, class of 2004

What did you study during your PhD and what were the most useful skills you gained during this period for the next steps? GABBA first year was very important to me. I graduated in Chemistry so you can imagine that when I enrolled GABBA my background knowledge of subjects such as Biology and Medicine was limited. Each week of classes I discovered new techniques and concepts, I was thrilled! I love to learn, so it was a very exciting year, though with a lot of effort and hard work. By the end “Each week of classes I of the year I knew I was prepared to dedicate my PhD to disease-related discovered new techniques research. Since child, I always wanted to do something that could somehow and concepts, I was thrilled!” improve somebodies’ life. So, I met the group of Raquel Seruca in IPATIMUP (now i3S), and through their research work they could predict the probability of a person/family to prematurely develop cancer. These studies involved different approaches such as genetics, cell biology, imaging, in silico predictions and biophysics. It seemed to me a great opportunity to gain deep knowledge in several research fields. And it was! Not only I managed to learn from experiencing all these scientific approaches and techniques, but I also felt that the work I was performing was really changing peoples’ life.

PORTO GENT BARCELONA CANTANHEDE 2004 2017 According to the information we provided about the pathogenicity of the mutated gene found in their genome (mutated CHD1 gene), the patients would be followed closely and advised by a clinical team, in attempt to

reduce the chances of premature death. Adding to the scientific skills gained, out of the most important assets I acquired during PhD are the capacity to work independently and to pay attention to details. I believe that in science, a great deal of information is often hidden in ‘details’...

When you graduated you decided to pursue your training with a postdoc. When did you decide you were going to change direction?

“I was lucky to be scientifically involved in a very interesting project, in collaboration with Crioestaminal, to explore the use of Umbilical Cord Blood derivatives as a treatment tool”

When I finished PhD, I first felt I needed to continue contributing to the same field. I had a FCT-funded project ongoing to further understand the molecular mechanisms driving the pathogenicity of CDH1 variants, so I continued to work in this subject as a postdoc. Part of the work was done in silico in the lab of Luís Serrano, Centre for Genomic Regulation – Barcelona. When the project was barely getting to the end, with interesting findings published in good journals (such as in Human Molecular Genetics journal), I started to feel I wanted to do something else, which would definitely need to be even more “translatable”, closer to peoples’ needs, with higher impact in their lives… I contacted the group of Biomaterials and Stem Cell Technologies, leaded by Lino Ferreira, to try an integration as a postdoc in this field. I was lucky to be scientifically involved in a very interesting project, in collaboration with Crioestaminal, to explore the use of Umbilical Cord Blood derivatives as a treatment tool, namely for wounds. I soon became an Assistant Researcher within this area, and dedicated all the efforts to bring the science we were doing in the lab, closer to became a clinical reality.

How did you prepare for your adventure in biotechnology start up setting and how hard was this transition?

“I decided to take this idea seriously and enrolled in Cohitec, a technology transfer program selecting technologies from the Universities to help them becoming successful businesses.”

My first contact with entrepreneurship was back in 2009 when I enrolled a 2weeks course in University of Porto. Back then I started to recognize that not only I had some hard and soft skills which were a good advantage in the field of entrepreneurship, but also that it should be very exciting to really experience the adventure of launching a startup. Only in 2014, working with a technology that I felt had the potential to feed a startup, I decided to take this idea seriously and enrolled in Cohitec, a technology transfer program selecting technologies from the Universities to help them becoming successful businesses. During a 4-month intensive period, myself and the other two founders of Exogenus Therapeutics (Luísa Marques, MBA; and Ricardo Neves, PhD) designed the Business Project which sustains the company. The Cohitec program staff were very supportive of our project, and we ended up being selected as the best project of 2014, which enable 44

us to attract 100 thousand euros of investment from Caixa Capital, and finally launch the company! Every day until now has been hard, but it also has been the most exciting time of my career.

How is a day like as ‘Executive Director and CSO’ of Exogenus? Very hard to tell. There is no routine at all… and I guess that’s what I love the most about my job. Just for you to have an idea, in a ‘typical’ day I may start discussing scientific details about an experiment in the lab with one of my team members, then jump to a skype meeting with, for example, an investor or a subcontracted entity, then I need to spend some time with COO Luísa Marques reviewing finances or planning management activities for the coming days, back to a scientific discussion with another lab member because something went differently than planned, and we need to re-plan everything, and ending up reviewing tomorrow’s agenda so I don’t forget anything on the next day...

How do you think it compares founding a start up in Portugal to other countries?

“Another difficulty is the mentality; in USA for example, if you had already a couple of examples in your career of companies you launched but did not succeed, this is seen as a sign of persistency and experience (…)”

I don’t think it is very different. From networking events, I tend to see that everybody is going through the same challenges, ups and downs all the time. What is unfortunate for us is the difficult access to funding, which results from not being a country with strong and positive examples in this field. In other countries, healthcare innovation is seen as a risky, but also very promising area to invest in. Another difficulty is the mentality; in USA for example, if you had already a couple of examples in your career of companies you launched but did not succeed, this is seen as a sign of persistency and experience, while here (and a bit in Europe in general) people look at you as if you are a failure in general, and have difficulties in understanding that if you are still trying, you keep accumulating knowledge and increase the chances of future success. Apart from these funding and mentality issues, I believe that a startup in Portugal has all the conditions to fly high, as in any other country. It is much more about the people and the will, then about the country. To jump over this issue, we always say that Exogenus Therapeutics is a global company, for a global market!

In what way did the GABBA PhD affect your career? As mentioned above, GABBA affect my life in all possible ways. In GABBA I learned a great part of what helps me today working in the field of Biomedicine; it gave me the opportunity to pursue a PhD (which otherwise

would be difficult to envisage); presented me world-class scientists in an informal way, which allowed me understand that everybody can be a Nobel Prize (I still believe that GABBA family will have one, one day…); provided me a strong network of friends, who are great scientists spread all over the world. To be short, GABBA believed in me and secured the first steps of my career, providing me the courage to get where I am now.

What is your take on the importance of alumni for the next GABBA generations? In what way do you think the GABBA Program affects scientific careers? “Be persistent. Do not quit with first adversities. Adversities are there to teach us, not to defeat us.”

I couldn’t be more convinced that GABBA can make a difference in the career of the young scientists now enrolling the next GABBA generations. GABBA is a family, more than a PhD program, and it is possible to “find home” all around the world. I believe that as science continues evolving, the opportunity given by GABBA to be integrated in top-class labs in the world, will enable our future generations to continue demonstrating there is something about this program that makes us different… and extremely good!

What advice would you give to students starting next January? Be persistent. Do not quit with first adversities. Adversities are there to teach us, not to defeat us. If you feel you are pursuing your dream, don’t let anybody convince you otherwise, neither to reduce the importance of what you are doing. And remember, anybody can be awarded a Nobel Prize, so it might be you.

Favorite Sunday activity: Enjoying sun with family and friends Dream vacation: Africa - volunteering period Favorite non-Portuguese cuisine: Grilled fish Sport: Trekking TV show that you binge watched recently: none, recently How do you commute? By car Android or iOS: Use both Pipet tip box usage method (in order, the ones in same area or random): In order Friday night drink: Port wine

Mariana Campos, PhD

Public Engagement and Project Manager at Genetic Alliance UK GABBA 13th edition, class of 2009

What did you study during your PhD? I did my PhD at the Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute in Barry Thompson's lab. My work focused on organ size control using Drosophila wing as my model.

In what way did the GABBA PhD affect your career? GABBA opened many doors! The modules allowed me to open my mind to and to know more about a breadth of topics and to make an informed choice when deciding the issue for my thesis. It gave the freedom of doing my PhD wherever I wanted. It gave me a group of supportive friends, to share good and hard times, to discuss science and life, to flatshare, and a listening ear, to this day, whenever I need one. I doubt I would be where I am now if it wouldn't be for all the above.

LONDON

2009 2017

You decided to leave academia after completing your PhD. When did you decide to change directions in your career? I loved my PhD, I learnt immensely, and my decision to leave academia was not a consequence of a bad experience. I knew from the get-go that I didn't want to be a group leader for many reasons (some valid, some I would realize

later on not so legitimate). I felt that in academia my success was too much on luck and not a direct reflection of how hard I worked. A significant part of my success would be the result of whether I was in the right project, whether no one else was working on it, and whether it was attractive to funders and publishers. I wanted to be in control (or at least more so) of my success and that lead to my decision to leave academia. I did almost get scooped during my final year PhD, and that might have been the last drop.

What do you consider are the most useful transferable skills you gained during the PhD? Project and time management, prioritizing, communicating clearly and the most important of all, problem-solving! I never gave too much thought to those skills until I left academia. When you are surrounded by PhDs and postdocs, who have a very systematic way of thinking, of breaking down problems into manageable parts you don't realize that not everyone can do that.

What is your favorite aspect of being a Public Engagement Manager? How do you see your role evolving as part of the widespread scientific culture? No day is the same! I love the mixture of science and creativity. I mostly work with patients and parents. I find it gratifying to show a parent a printed copy of a chromosome and see them realize why their child (who often only has one base pair change in their genome) has had to wait years for, or might never get, a diagnosis... it brings meaning to my work.

What is your take on the importance of alumni for the next GABBA generations? In what way do you think the GABBA Program affects scientific careers? GABBA alumni can help other GABBAs make decisions, can be inspirational and examples of what is possible. I have been contacted by several current and future GABBAs asking for advice - always happy to help. Personally, one of the reasons why I decided to apply for GABBA was because I did my MSc in a lab lead by a GABBA alumnus (Henrique Veiga-Fernandes), supported by another GABBA alumnus (Afonso Almeida).

What advice would you give to students starting next January? No question is a stupid question!

Favorite Sunday activity: Brunch and coffee! Dream vacation: with my feet in the sea and the sun kissing my skin! Favorite non-Portuguese cuisine: hard, hard question! Dim sum? Vietnamese? Thai? Sushi? I can narrow it down to Asia, don't ask me more Sport: Dancing TV show that you binge-watched recently: Stranger Things How do you commute? Tube Android or iOS: Android Pipet tip box usage method (in order, the ones in the same area or random): oh, nostalgia - the ones in the same area Friday night drink: G&T (7 years in the UK...!)

Diana Pinheiro, PhD

Postdoc at IST, Austria GABBA 15th edition, class of 2011

What did you study during your PhD? What were the most useful skills you gained during this phase?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was extremely challenging, but also a very rewarding personal journey!â&#x20AC;?

During my PhD, I used the Drosophila pupal notum to study how epithelial cells divide in vivo. Combining advanced fly genetics, high-resolution liveimaging and theoretical modelling, my doctoral work uncovered a new biophysical mechanism able to sense and transmit the mechanical forces generated within the dividing cell to its neighbors. This mechanism allows epithelia to maintain their required properties (cell-cell adhesion, apicalbasal polarity and tissue cohesiveness), while proliferating. During this period, I learned enormously on how to ask the right scientific questions, how to optimize experimental setups and prepare my results for publication. I also participated in a number of scientific conferences and further developed my communication and organizational skills. It was extremely challenging, but also a very rewarding personal journey! In my experience, resilience and creative thinking were critical to overcome the technical and intellectual obstacles of the PhD project.

PARIS VIENNA 2011 2017

You recently graduated an moved on to a Postdoc position at IST, Austria. How did you prepare for the transition? Well, I would say that is very much a work in progress stillâ&#x20AC;ŚSince I decided to change model system from Drosophila to zebrafish embryos, I am

encountering non-negligible technical and conceptual challenges in terms of the available methods and techniques, as well as overall scientific approach. My strategy has been to read, as extensively as possible, the background for both the new model organism and the project, streamline my scientific question and, essentially tail my new colleagues for technical guidance. It has been fun though!

As a recent PhD, how do you see the future of academia?

“we [scientists] must communicate better (not lecture) with the general public to effectively decrypt our research without overselling, nor undermining its relevance (…)”

After many decades of almost continuous expansion in the total number of scientific institutions, graduates and produced knowledge, the last decade has been marked by increasing strain in funding, post-PhD, then, postPostdoc employment challenges and, even, the overall perception of science and the relative importance of its disciplines has been actively changing. I do not consider this to be exclusive to the academic world, nor profoundly negative, I rather see it as a normal reassessment after the “scientific boom”, likely to be motivated by the ongoing societal, economic and political challenges of the new century. In my opinion, for scientists, the key challenges ahead are 2-fold; on one hand, we must communicate better (not lecture) with the general public to effectively decrypt our research without over-selling, nor undermining its relevance; and, on another hand, as scientists and citizens, we need to take a much more active stand in policymaking.

What is your take on the importance of alumni for the next GABBA generations? In what way do you think the GABBA Program affects scientific careers? The GABBA alumni are one of the best assets of this program, not only due to their remarkable scientific achievements, but also for establishing a strong “The GABBA alumni are one scientific network. Personally, I contacted many former students during, and of the best assets of this after, my PhD to ask for advice on scientific-related topics, or simply, for help program, not only due to settling in a new city and country. In all cases, I got extremely quick and their remarkable scientific welcoming replies! I am convinced that organizing ourselves as an official achievements, but also for alumni network will be critical to further strengthen these ties and facilitate establishing a strong networking between current and previous GABBA students. scientific network.”

What advice would you give to students starting next January? In my opinion, the essential tools to bring, and nurture, during a PhD (and in a postdoctoral position) is genuine curiosity and eagerness to learn. With

these, the challenges arising during scientific research become easier to surpass!

Favorite Sunday activity: Reading a great book in a nice coffee shop and walking in my new neighbourhood. Dream vacation: Current dream vacations (which I hope wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t remain a dream for much longer) is New Zealand. Favorite non-Portuguese cuisine: Spanish Sport: To practice? I would say swimmingâ&#x20AC;ŚTo watch? Must say football! TV show that you binge watched recently: Westworld!! How do you commute? I have a rather long commute for Viennese standards, including both a metro and bus ride. Android or iOS: iOS Pipet tip box usage method (in order, the ones in same area or random): Usually random... Friday night drink: Wine or beer, depending on the general atmosphere. J

Rui Ribeiro

GABBA PhD student GABBA 20th edition, class of 2016

How would you describe your PhD project? Ageing is known to be the main risk factor for chronic diseases and declining health, and has been shown to be surprisingly plastic, particularly at the genetic level. At Elsa Logarinho’s lab (i3S) we are focused on the link between ageing and the loss of mitotic fidelity during cell division, which could support the correlation between ageing and aneuploidy (i.e. an aberrant number of chromosomes due to chromosome mis-segregation) seen over the past decades. My PhD project aims to restore the cell’s proliferative capacity under fidelity, using a mouse model of accelerated aging, in order to ameliorate premature aging cellular and organismal phenotypes. This comes as a potential mean to increase healthy lifespan and has clinical benefit for premature aging syndromes.

PORTO

2017

What were the most useful skills you gained during the modules, symposium and choosing lab(s) phases?

“I think I have improved a lot of skills, mainly adaptability (…)”

I think I have improved a lot of skills, mainly adaptability, in some way the ability to “think on your feet” and also (the sometimes forgotten) science communication abilities.

Why did you apply for the GABBA PhD Program? What appealed me to apply for GABBA was the well-reputed ethos of the program: in the first year you get a “snapshot” overview of a broad range of scientific areas, and then you are gifted with “total freedom” to choose lab while being fully funded – how many opportunities like this do you get nowadays in Portugal?

“The GABBA alumni are undeniably one of the most valuable parts of the GABBA Program: you join a community that has lived the same experience and dealt with the same challenges, offering some much-needed perspective and guidance.”

What is your take on the importance of alumni for the next GABBA generations? The GABBA alumni are undeniably one of the most valuable parts of the GABBA Program: you join a community that has lived the same experience and dealt with the same challenges, offering some much-needed perspective and guidance. It’s also a powerful network to get easy access to experts on a wide range of topics where you might get some direct dividends for your research. Plus, the vast majority of GABBA alumni has achieved relevant careers in prestigious labs worldwide, or partakes significant roles in different social/non-academic matters, so you end up being inspired to give your very best.

In what way do you think the GABBA Program affects scientific careers? It has undoubtedly a great impact on scientific career and it’s a great starting point to start an international career. To be part of such a well-reputed PhD program definitely open doors to what’s happening “right now” on the bench, allowing to engage in high-level projects, both in academic and nonacademic settings.

What advice would you give to students starting next January? I think the best advice I can give is to enjoy: enjoy the constant challenge of getting in touch with new and (very) different areas of knowledge; enjoy the proximity with outstanding scientists that will inspire you for sure, when comes the time to make “big choices” or to network; and enjoy the “family” that will surround you for the next 6 months, it will be your support network.

Favorite Sunday activity: Hang out with friends. Dream vacation: So many places… Bali, the famed Island of the Gods, is one of them. Favorite non-Portuguese cuisine: hard to choose… Japanese. Sport: some may not consider it a “sport” but I choose CrossFit – yeah you sweat a lot!… but it comes with a real sense of achievement, once you accomplish your first “handstand push-up” or master a “snatch” you get truly excited. TV show that you binge watched recently: I quickly became addicted to Orphan Black. How do you commute? Mainly by car. Android or iOS: iOS for sure. Pipet tip box usage method (in order, the ones in same area or random): in an “OCD-ish” order from the bottom to the top. Friday night drink: Vodka tonic :)

It would be great to count with your help for the next ATG Newsletter If you are willing to help, just write us an email. We will take all the help & ideas you may have.

ATG News Milene Costa Silva RECENT GRADUATES

Danica Drpic, GABBA 15th. Thesis: Dissecting the link between kinetochore-microtubule dynamics, error correction and checkpoint satisfaction during mitosis. Mentor: Helder Maiato. Defense date: 05-29-2017

Iliona Wolfowicz, GABBA 16th. Thesis: Aiptasia sp. larva as a model to study the cellular mechanisms of coral-algae symbiosis. Mentor: Annika Guse (University of Heidelberg). Defense date: 06-21-2017

Mafalda Almeida, GABBA 15th. Thesis: Polycomb recruitment in mammals. Mentor: Neil Brockdorff (University of Oxford). Defense date: 06-29-2017

Catarina Morais Seabra, GABBA 16th. Thesis: Discovering Pathways Underlying Autism Spectrum Disorders Upon Loss-of-Function of Chromatin-Remodeling Genes. Mentors: James F. Gusella & Michael E. Talkowski (Center for Human Genetic Research (CHGR), MGH, Boston, USA). Defense date: 10-03-2017

JoĂŁo Neto, GABBA 15th. Thesis: The role of epigenetic mechanisms as modifiers of Huntington disease trinucleotide instability. Mentor: Vanessa Wheeler (Center for Human Genetic Research - Mass. Gen. Hospital, Boston, USA). Defense date: 10-23-2017

Maria de Sousa received the University of Lisbon Award 2017 on the 13

of November 2017. The official ceremony took place at Salão Nobre da Reitoria da Universidade de Lisboa. The University of Lisbon Award 2017, in a joint venture with Caixa Geral de Depósitos, aims to distinguish individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of Science and/or Culture and for the international image of Portugal. The ULisboa award of 25,000.00€ is annually awarded.

Please read Prof. Maria’s speech at the end of this issue of the Newsletter.

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The GABBA Community keeps growing Check GABBA achievements in numbers

GABBA Infographics João Neto

For its first 20 editions GABBA has accepted 226 students (58% women, 42% men), having surpassed 100 students by its 9th edition and 200 at the 18th. A high rate of completion has been achieved, with 162 PhDs completed by October 2017, and 58 PhD studentships ongoing.

“Overall, a vast majority (over 75%) of students choose to do their projects abroad”

Overall, a vast majority (over 75%) of students choose to do their projects abroad, with the United Kingdom, the United States and Spain being the most frequently chosen destinations. Almost 15% do their projects exclusively in Portugal, while approximately 9% opt for international collaborations where the United States and the United Kingdom are the most frequent partners.

Over 75% of PhDs have been completed within a length of 4 to 6 years, with an overall median duration of just over 5 years. GABBA has surpassed 100 completed PhDs in 2011, achieving over 150 during 2016. After their PhD a majority of GABBA have focused their careers on Teaching and Research (mainly in academia, to a smaller extent in biotech and pharma), a fair amount has focused on Business and Entrepreneurship (such as biotech and consulting), Medicine, Science Communication/Outreach and Technical specialties/Lab managing have also been professional choices for alumni. This is what 20 years in the life of GABBA program look like. Can wait to see what the next 20 years will bring.

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Are you an #iamgabba? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook group to keep up with all the GABBA students and ATGs

University of Lisbon Award to Maria de Sousa Helder Araújo Maria de Sousa won 2017’s University of Lisbon’s Award. What we hope that this award tells you.

It is November 2017 and Maria de Sousa has won another award.

This

time, it is an award given by the University of Lisbon, honoring her for her scientific contributions. This is hardly news to any ATG. It would be enough to write that Maria de Sousa has won something… It would certainly have to pertain to science, because she personifies science for all of us. The reasons for the award would not need to be mentioned because they are obvious to all of us. “We know that this young scientist eventually “disquieted” her somewhat reluctant advisor by revealing the results of her sharp observations: not all lymphocytes are equal.”

We know of this young woman who, unhappy with how little medicine could do to help patients in the 60s, decided to pursue a scientific research path. We know of this young woman who was sent to sit in front of a microscope so that she would keep herself busy and not disquiet the lab. We know that this young scientist eventually “disquieted” her somewhat reluctant advisor by revealing the results of her sharp observations: not all lymphocytes are equal. We know that this scientist did not stop at that finding; she needed to know more about the reasons behind her results and coined the theory known as “ecotaxis”, eventually deciding to investigate the relationship between iron and lymphocytes. What a great decision for the field, and, selfish and parochially, for all of us, as it was that decision that brought her back to Portugal, a country with relatively high prevalence of hereditary hemochromatosis (See 1 & 2, for an account of Maria de Sousa’ career path.). We know that this scientist did not stay in the comfort of her own experiments and publications. We know that she did much more. For example, she, along with other people, among whom Mariano Gago figures prominently, helped elevate biomedical science research in Portugal to what it is today (3). Or an example closer to us, she went through a great deal of work and personal sacrifice to create GABBA and she has always kept the same of level of effort to support this graduate program throughout the years.

As much as Maria de Sousa is science, she has always been more than science. Maybe that is the part of her that we know less about, mostly because she does not seem to believe the non-science related aspects of her life would interest us. But if we want to learn more about this part of her life, we can read her “Meu Dito, Meu Escrito” (2) or even her poetry book (4), and eventually watch an interview she gave ATG a couple of years ago (once we are done editing it). “Well, ignorance sometimes coincides with bravery and boldness (…)”

“She regards her students the same way selfless parents regard their children.”

Now that I too know so much about her, I think about the time I met Maria de Sousa, in my third year of medical school, and feel luckier than many other ATGs because I, like all her other medical students at the time, got to meet her without knowing very well who she was. I was captivated by her capacity to challenge us in the most varied forms, asking us to watch paintings in a museum to learn how to observe, or asking us to use the internet (it was 2001 back then, but, yes, ignorance prevailed…), but I was not aware of the multiple De Sousa’s contributions. Well, ignorance sometimes coincides with bravery and boldness; I approached and got to know Maria de Sousa without the hesitance and reserve that such important people tend to evoke on us as much as I have always addressed her as “Senhora Professora”. The more I reflect about the experience of relating with Maria de Sousa, the more I realize that the relationship was not reciprocal. Like most students, I was and have been selfish. We, ATGs, all have. What could she possibly receive from us that would make our relationship somewhat reciprocal after all she has given us? When it comes to her students, Maria de Sousa does not want much for herself. She regards her students the same way selfless parents regard their children. She is joyful with the students’ success and excellence. She is comfortable in assuming the quietness of the trees, but we, and I speak for many of us, feel much better when we know of gestures that do what we have not been able to do: make her contributions somewhat more reciprocal. This award should have soothed us, but once again, she disquiets us. In her acceptance speech, she mentions GABBA, ATGs, and the future of science in Portugal. Well, “Senhora Professora Maria”, you are not making this any easy for us when you want to make also ours an award that is only yours. In any case, it is about time we became emotionally assertive. We are very grateful to you, but there is more: we love you very dearly. We are happy that the world does not allow you the quietness of the trees. We love to

go online (yes, now even I use the internet quiet frequently…) and read something about you. This time, like all other times you have received an award or spoke at some event, we are extremely happy for you, the same way we know you would be for us. Congratulations, Senhora Professora Maria de Sousa!

References: 1. De Sousa, Maria (2014). Meu Dito, Meu Escrito. Da Ciência e Cientistas com um monólogo da caneta. Gradiva. 2. Goodfield, June (1991). An Imagined World: A Story of Scientific Discovery. Ann Arbor Paperbacks. 3. De Sousa, M. (2009). A personal account of the development of modern biological research in Portugal. Int. J. Dev. Biol. 53: 1253-1259. 4. De Sousa, Maria (1988). A Hora e a Circunstância. Cadenzas de Agostinho da Silva. Gradiva.

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A Witness’s Testimony Maria de Sousa This is a translation of the acceptance speech during the award ceremony of the University of Lisbon 2017. We tried to keep it faithful to the original Portuguese version. Although we must alert you that this version is, at least, less charming, we still hope you find it interesting and appreciate these wise thoughts. Thank you to all those who help translate it: Joana Wilton, Filipa Ferreira, Helder Araújo, André Sousa and Verónica Guimarães.

First, I must thank you for being awarded this prize, which I somewhat hesitate to accept. The reason for this hesitation is relatively simple. It is based on the long and winding history of science and universities in Portugal, and on the fact that Portuguese universities struggle, still today, to integrate many of our best young scientists. In all fairness, the only feature that qualifies me as a professor is my lifelong dedication to research. If I did have any success, that success was mostly due to the good fortune of having had students of great quality. Six of them were, or still are, Professors in universities in the U.S., France, Canada, and the U.K; and one is the CEO of a biotech company in Australia. Out of the graduate program GABBA, of which I was an indirect mentor along with other Professors of the University of Porto, such as Manuel Sobrinho Simões, Fátima Carneiro, and António Amorim, 158 students completed their Ph.Ds. Of these, I think eight were awarded grants from the European Research Council. Surprisingly, and to the best of my knowledge, none of these students have a professorship position in a Portuguese university. I returned to Portugal in 1985. Soon after, the circumstances placed me close to Mariano Gago in 1987, and to Carlos Salema in the 1990s, both presidents of the JINICT (Junta Nacional de Investigação e Tecnologia). Those were very important years for the beginning of external evaluation of projects and for the emergence of new institutes of biomedical research. That privileged context in which I found myself allows me to speak today

as a witness of a particularly important time for modern science in Portugal. Thus, the title of this speech: a witness’s testimony. While I was preparing this text, I found the magnificent Ph.D. thesis of Dr. Ângela Salgueiro, an alumna of the University of Lisbon School of Social Sciences. The thesis, on science and universities in the 1st Portuguese Republic. All references to these times are transcribed from her thesis.

Image: Professor Maria de Sousa receiving the award, November 13, 2017.

My speech will revolve around two axes: one pertaining to the past and another pertaining to the present. These axes merge into a central node, dedicated to Professor Carmo Fonseca and to Dr. Leonor Beleza. Both the axes and the central node represent different forms of courage. The axis of the past evokes courageous voices and timid numbers. The central node demonstrates another form of courage, represented by the rise of women into leadership positions in biomedical research. The other axis, which represents the present, shows the strength of numbers in a time when voices appear to be relatively timider.

The courage of voices and the shyness numbers, 1883 1983 I will start by evoking Bernardino Machado, a Professor of philosophy who Ângela Salgueiro cites in her thesis. In a very positivist speech in 1883, he said: “Thus, to love science by worshipping the wise and esteeming the scholars, by adoring it through its martyrs; to serve science through perseverant, obstinate, and unstoppable studies; to serve it through the rigorous application of its dictates, even when that requires sacrifices: these are the premises of what a national religion should be for those who feel the passion of their nation in their souls.

Knowledge does not elevate us only as citizens. The discoveries that move, enrich, and ennoble the nation today, will be of service to all humankind tomorrow, [...] To love, and to serve science, then, is to love and serve all virtues; it is even more than a national obligation, it is a humanitarian obligation.” Bernardino Machado still: “To be educated is to be free. A nation without originality, a nation that does not create, invent, or discover, and, that only lives of material or spiritual loans is not far away from losing its autonomy even if it still keeps it due to the prestige of its inherited name. A university is a laboratory, an exemplar workshop, where professors and disciples, like true workers and apprentices, are not to consume ideas, but to produce them. And both professors and disciples do not do it for themselves, do not work exclusively for their own wellbeing and progress, do not produce for their own consumption only; they do it for one another and, most of all, for those who are blinded by ignorance and superstition.” I will also evoke Augusto Celestino da Costa, who in an article in 1917 writes: “It is the University that should support and develop scientific activity and the reconstruction of the nation, never neglecting professional education, because the essential function of the universities is to do science and to prepare professionals with scientific and technical education. The creation of universities with a modern and precise orientation never left the blueprint; its name was taken by inconsistent, spineless institutions. Coimbra still parades the grand façade of its corporate existence. Lisbon and Porto struggle with incoherence, with the ignorance of their goals, the absence of ideas, and sometimes with the awareness of their impotence.” “No matter how hard I look into our universities, I can only see a certain number of individual organisms not aggregated for a common goal [...] [each school] tries accomplish its goals as best as it can, but there is not a combination of efforts to establish the common ideal of living for the good of the nation.”

Abel Salazar, in a letter addressed to Celestino da Costa in 1921, wrote: “Give us autonomy, appropriate funding for libraries and publications and this will work out, otherwise one spends two thirds of one’s energy overcoming imbecile obstacles! Je m’en fiche from the university, since it is reluctant to move forward, but let me carry on with my life [...]” A decade later, Pires de Lima reinforced: “We lack the broadest autonomy within the scientific institutes in Portugal. A legal disposition should clearly regulate the rights and obligations of laboratory personnel, who need to have appropriate funding. As long as laboratories have enough resources at its disposition, and as long as the environment is conducive to scientific labor, the state can demand for Portuguese science.” Simões Raposo also stated: “As for me, the scientific career should begin before reaching professorship. It should be, in fact, the regular path to reach a professorship position. The researcher to whom teaching is not attractive should be able to continue his activity without applying for a professorship. The reason why the near-totality of Portuguese researchers teach is because teaching is the only way for them to earn a salary worthy of their efforts and working conditions.[...] To reach this goal, there is no need to separate research institutes from universities. In fact, doing so would rob universities of the highest guideline of their activity: the creation of new science.”

Image: Professor Maria de Sousa during the University of Lisbon award ceremony.

Let us know hear a confession from António Sérgio, the Minister of Public Education at the time: “I was Minister for Education in 1923 (despite my disgust for power – real power or fictitious power) solely to found the “Junta” [...] I issued the decree-law that created the Junta, and, simultaneously, I presented in the Parliament a bill that would create the revenue necessary for the Junta’s operation. However, since the Parliament was distracted with truly mediocre issues, it never discussed the bill. Consequently, I did not nominate the personnel that would constitute the Junta (it would be useless), and therefore the initiative was fruitless, or rather, fruitful only as propaganda of the idea.” Bernardino Machado, Abel Salazar, Augusto Celestino da Costa, Pires de Lima, Simões Raposo, and António Sergio are just a few names whose voices valued the integration of science into the University. However, because of political, financial and cultural constraints, these men died before being able to truly revolutionize universities or to fulfill their desire of transforming the country into a country respected for its scientific output and for the international projection of its scientists. This would only become possible with Portugal’s inclusion in the European Union in 1986, with changes in scientific funding (Figs. 1,2), and the explosion of opportunities for doctoral fellowships started by a man who recently left us: José Mariano Gago.

Another type of courage: women. The introduction of rigorous, external evaluation of thousands of doctoral fellowships had, in my view, a surprising effect: it attracted many Portuguese men and women, who had recently graduated, to pursue their scientific studies. It was surprising because in other European countries and even in the US, young graduates were more inclined towards business areas, such as finance, the banking industry, and IT, than towards scientific research, which were already considered a very risky choice, due to their precarious outcomes. In fact, the word ‘precarious’ was only recently added to the Portuguese scientific vocabulary. However, in the 60’s, the decade in which ‘this old

lady’ left the country, the most precarious entity in Portuguese society, second only to the very poor people, were women. Both Professor Carmo Fonseca and Dr. Leonor Beleza reached leadership positions in the Portuguese biomedical sciences and, in a certain way, represent another great and significant change in the Portuguese society: the role of women. It was the leadership of Professor Carmo Fonseca as president of the Institute of Molecular Medicine between 2001 and 2014, with the continued support of Professor João Lobo Antunes at the School of Medicine, that assured the creation of a research institute. This institute would certainly have pleased Augusto Celestino da Costa. Furthermore, the leading position of the Institute of Molecular Medicine, today renamed IMM João Lobo Antunes, in biomedical research was never weakened by Professor Carmo Fonseca or the death of Lobo Antunes; instead, it has even been strengthened with the leadership of another remarkable, younger woman, Dr. Maria Mota. This is a rare example of continuous success, even after the death of an important source of inspiration. IMM has among its researchers 11 awardees of European Research Council grants, which shows that the quality measure of the work developed in the institution is being recognized by internationally renowned and independent agencies. I would like for this speech to be a kind of Hosanna to the value of memory. I am moved by thinking about how Augusto Celestino da Costa would be pleased to see IMM and recognize in Professor Carmo Fonseca all the traits he had imagined scientists should possess: from the research work of her group, to the excellent relationship she has with her students, and for being constantly available and worried about the state of scientific research in Portugal, particularly in University of Lisbon and its School of Medicine. Hearing that Professor Carmo Fonseca accepted to speak at this ceremony fills me with great joy, a joy that is hard to be explained. As if that weren’t enough, I also learned that Leonor Beleza was kind enough to be here and generously say words that I am not sure I deserve, but I accept nevertheless in the name of the hundreds of younger people who decided to be scientific researchers in Portugal. What Leonor Beleza deserves is for us to imagine, in the same way we can envision Celestino da Costa’s satisfaction, the satisfaction of António Champalimaud. Champalimaud, unlike

Celestino da Costa, was acquainted with Leonor Beleza in his lifetime. His will illustrates the power of philanthropy. Leonor Beleza presides a research and clinical organization centered in oncology, neurosciences and psychiatry, opened in 2010, on the 100th anniversary of the implementation of the 1st Republic. This was the particular period studied in the thesis of Dr. Ângela Salgueiro. Its Neurosciences Ph.D. Program started in 2007, at that time in the Instituto Gulbenkian Ciência (IGC). Moving forward 10 years, Champalimaud Foundation has laboratories whose researchers total 44 nationalities and among them we can count 11 ERC grantees. It can be considered equivalent to a small research school where boys and girls, if they are so inclined to, will want to learn from those who know the limitations of their knowledge and, consequently, will always strive to learn more. Furthermore, as Leonor Beleza has imprinted in the philosophy and the very architecture of the organization, it is not only about learning more, but also to dedicate ourselves to learn more, to serve people with disease who ask for help: 25,615 patients in 2016, 22,835 patients this year (until October). The poor philanthropic support to universities is part of the picture portraying the interaction of universities and society, a picture that has not significantly changed throughout time. As I enter the second axis, I take the freedom to evoke first Aurélio Quintanilha, who, in 1933, delivered a speech that led to his dismissal from the University of Coimbra. I quote, once again from Salgueiro’s work: “Universities do not produce because scientific research has no tradition among us, because young professionals are recruited by the older generation, who select them according to their image and likeness, people with the same mentality and who will not be disturbing elements. [...] Universities do not produce because the salaries of their faculty are so miserable that do not allow them to be committed to research and teaching […]” “Universities do not educate – he said – because there is no socializing, no collaboration, between masters and disciples […]” The most elegant way I found to integrate this lethal grievance by Aurélio Quintanilha - lethal both to him and to the history of Portuguese science,

because we lost this opportunity - is the mythological figure of the chimaera: a head of aged full professors, in some departments averaging 50 to 60 years old, and a body made of thousands of younger men and women, 35 to 45 years old, some close to 50, who were awarded their first fellowships around the late 80s, early 90s. The discrepancy between the percentages of the younger and older generations in academia is very well represented in the next slide, coming from an article of the GeneralDirectorate of Education and Higher Learning – DGEECS. The head of the chimaera has yet to integrate the younger generation, disregarding what foreign institutions appear to opt for, i.e., designing new professorships favoring integration and appreciating the scientific research of younger investigators, leading to the creation of new schools, a hankering so dear to Abel Salazar.

Image: ages of citizens with PhDs in Portugal. DGEEC, MEC – Inquérito aos Doutorados 2012 (CDH12).

Allow me a parenthesis to acknowledge our GABBA students, who, themselves feeling as part of a scientific school without supporting walls, also created an alumni association named ATG, All Time GABBA, of which we are all very proud. It would not be noteworthy in any American university, but something I am very pleased to mention in this occasion. As I said in the beginning, without them, if I were not here in their name, perhaps I would not feel so much at home here, today. Although we know, proudly and with satisfaction, that some of them are currently professors in prestigious foreign universities, the real challenge will be to find a way to mobilize the country to consider them worthy. To an experimentalist like me, one hundred and thirty years seem to be enough to prove that there is no interest on the part of governments or universities to integrate the best scientists into academia.

The courage of numbers has two crucial moments: the first was the explosion in the number of Ph.D. fellowships, which was made possible by Mariano Gago; and the second, comprised by both “Ciência” researchers (Gago still?) and FCT researcher (Seabra) programs. Due to the second moment, 600 to 800 researchers emerged, and became group leaders aged 40 to 50 years old, ready to establish a sustainable scientific structure. It is mainly in this group that the recipients of important international grants, such as the ERCs in astrophysics, health sciences, and social sciences, can be found.

Image: Number of citizens with PhDs in Portugal across time. DGEEC, MEC – Inquérito aos Doutorados 2012 (CDH12).

Universities do not seem to be interested or to be able to integrate these researchers. Our government soon will implement a law to hire thousands of postdocs with six years of experience after being awarded their PhDs. Well, these young researchers will take 30 more years to be ready to be academic leaders; and, by then, the current full professors will be close to 100 years old. The researchers who are currently ready to lead will thus be forced to accept places in foreign universities. Any fairly intelligent Portuguese citizen will be ashamed to lose this group, so intelligently created in 2007 with the “Ciência” Program.

Conclusion I do not wish, however, to end this intervention with anger and shame. I share with António Barreto the feeling of hope, and, after I quote him, I will tell a short inspiring tale, also focused on hope. In his recent book, aptly titled Tempo de Escolha, Antonio Barreto states:

“Hope is the only factor that fuels some optimism. Anyone who has seen this much, from dictatorship to poverty, from illiteracy to disease, from inequality to racism; whoever has seen it all and has also seen that we can prevent, change, and cease, cannot help but think, with hope, that human beings ought to be able use the remarkable means available to them to review and to reevaluate, to rethink and correct.” My short story is a message from the other side of the Atlantic, a place from where many good, and not-so-good stories arrive. It is a brief narration by Condoleezza Rice, the former American Secretary of State, in her recently-published book about Democracy. She was 6 years old (Fig. ) and an uncle had picked her up from her school, in Alabama, on the same day George Wallace would be elected governor. As you might remember, Wallace was a man who stated, in his inaugural speech in 1963, that he would want “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever in Alabama,” a man who was hostile towards the civil rights of black citizens. There were long lines of AfricanAmerican people waiting to vote. Little Condoleezza asks her uncle, ‘Are we going to win?’. The uncle answers, ‘No, because we are a minority.’ The child then replies, ‘Why bother?’. Her uncle answers: ‘Because they know that, one day, that vote will matter.’

Image: On a family trip, grade schooler Condoleezza Rice exhibits an early version of her elegant seriousness, posing in front of the White House, where she would one day serve as national security advisor, then Secretary of State. Source: NPR (National Public Radio)

This is a message of hope for the researchers who, at the moment, may not see the light at the end of the tunnel, inside or even outside of academia in Portugal; for the young scientists who see themselves more cherished by foreign universities; for the older scientists who are tired of fighting; even for ministers who cannot find the necessary support from the Minister of Finance; and for all of us who, here and there, one day, cannot avoid asking, “Why bother?” Because one day, history tells us, believing will matter. Maybe this is one of the reasons why so many fear history, and we seek to honor it with this ceremony. Thank you very much. Maria de Sousa Lisbon, November 13, 2017

References

Salgueiro, A. 2015 PhD thesis “A Ciência na I Republica” FCSH, Nova University of Lisbon. BRITES, Geraldino. 1934, Questões de Ensino, Imprensa da Universidade, Coimbra: 14-15. 933 Vd. Parte II, Capítulo 2 – Institucionalização científica e especialização disciplinar. Carta de Abel Salazar a Celestino da Costa, 1921, transcrito em COIMBRA, António (org.). 2006: 42. 935 AIC Pasta Joaquim Alberto Pires de Lima, “Relatório da viagem de estudo do prof. Joaquim Alberto Pires de Lima”, 1932, pp. 40-41 (cota 0549/10). CHAVES, Pedro Roberto. 1919: 3. 904 CC/FMS, fundo Abel Salazar, Documentos, pasta 05378.058, “Reforma do ensino médico”, s.d., p.1 (http://hdl.handle.net/11002/fms_dc_47743, consulted in January 29, 2014). CHAVES, Pedro Roberto. 1919: 3. 906 COSTA, A. Celestino da. s.d.: 8-9. 907 Vd. COSTA, A. Celestino. 1917b, “Ensino Médico e Universidades”. A Medicina Contemporânea, 17, 29 de Abril: 130-131. 908 Ibidem.

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