2024 Edition

Chris Quince has pioneered techniques to reduce sequencing noise and the application of methods such as shotgun metagenomics to microbial communities. This cutting-edge approach fragments and sequences all of the genomes in a microbiome – quite literally taking a shotgun approach – and these are then reconstructed using sophisticated computational approaches. The methods to reconstruct sequence fragments back into metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) have been significantly advanced by Quince.

Pedro Beltrao has a Biochemistry degree from University of Coimbra (2002) and a PhD in Biology from the University of Aveiro for research conducted at EMBL-Heidelberg under the supervision of Luis Serrano (2007). He did his postdoctoral research at the University of California San Francisco under the supervision of Prof. Nevan Krogan (2008-2012). He was a group leader at EMBL-EBI from 2013 to 2021 and he is now an Associate Professor at the Department of Biology, ETH Zurich from Jan 2022

I obtained my PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Barcelona in 2000. After that, I spent many wonderful years working as a postdoc at the University of Oxford, UK (2001-2003), University College London, UK (2003-2006), and Imperial College London, UK (2006-2009). I briefly held a senior researcher and group leader position at BCAM, Bilbao, Spain (2009-2010), after which I moved to the Centre Recerca Matematica in Barcelona, Spain, where I lead the Cancer Modelling Group. I have also held visiting fellowships at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, IIMAS (UNAM, Mexico DF), OCCAM (University of Oxford, UK), the Mathematical Institute (University of Oxford, UK), the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (Columbus, Ohio, USA), and the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (Cambridge, UK). In October 2015, I was appointed to an ICREA Research Professorship at the Centre de Recerca Matematica.

Multidisciplinary Institute of Aging (MIA), University of Coimbra, Portugal

Aging is a gradual, degenerative and complex process characterized by a decline in physiological function and increased vulnerability to disease. Gene and protein expression play crucial roles in this degenerative process, serving as mechanisms that modulate its processes and pathways and, for these reasons, are excellent proxies to understand the underlying biology of aging. To understand gene expression dynamics and regulatory mechanisms during aging, we analysed data from the transcriptome, proteome, transcription factors and miRNAs during aging in the mouse in a way that allowed us to unveil specific time points, protein solubility and aggregation variables that change across the lifespan. By mapping transcriptomic and proteomic changes we have advanced on the identification of true biomarkers of aging to monitor the impact of therapeutic interventions on biological age.

Sílvia Barbeiro is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Coimbra, member of the Numerical Analysis and Optimization group of the Centre for Mathematics of University of Coimbra. She studied at the University of Coimbra and at the Technical University of Berlin and she received her PhD degree in Applied Mathematics in 2005 from the University of Coimbra. She was awarded a L'Oréal Portugal Medal of Honor for Women in Science 2010, a prize promoted by the Foundation for Science and Technology, the L'Oréal Portugal and the UNESCO National Commission. Her research interests are in numerical analysis and computational mathematics, including modeling and the development and analysis of numerical methods for partial differential equations and integro-differential equations. Her research focuses on theory and applications, namely problems in biomathematics, engineering, geosciences and medical imaging.