Past News

Friday 12th December, our host institution CIBIT had its traditional Christmas Dinner. All of CIBIT's students and researchers, from preclinical to clinical research, gathered together over a nice meal to celebrate this festive season. The dinner was completed with the also customary Secret Santa, where CIBIT members gifted each other with personalized, hand made presents. What a great opportunity to get to know each other a little better and strengthen our bonds as colleagues. Happy holidays!

On Saint Martin's Day (Dia de São Martinho), November 11th, our host institute has organized a Magusto. This is a tradition celebrated all over the country, where communities gather to roast chestnuts over a bonfire and to taste the new wine, products of the recent harvest season. At CIBIT, this is an opportunity for the different research groups to meet in an informal setting, relax and network. Who knows what new ideas and collaborations of the DiVErSe group may come from a conversation over chestnuts?!

The DiVErSe Lab is celebrating a new Master in the group. Leon Wanderley defended his thesis dissertation on October 30, with the title "Investigating microglial changes and excitatory/inhibitory imbalance following neonatal Kiss1R antagonist injection". His jury committee was composed by Doctors Cristina Rego, Catarina Gomes and Joana Gonçalves, who shared with Leon a thought-provoking discussion on the impacts of his research. We trust that this was a year of enriching scientific opportunities for Leon, and wish him the very best for his future. 

On the 26th September, the DiVErSe Lab was once again present at the European Researchers' Night in Coimbra Downtown. This year, our stand was under the theme "Neuronal DiVErSity: Connections Between Brain and Society", and we had many activities prepared for publics of all ages, to share our research and ongoing projects. Between the "Connect the Brains" game and the "Neuronal Chutes and Ladders", it was a rich night of sharing, networking and giving back to society. Thank you to all involved in the preparations of the activities, and to all who visited our stand!

The DiVErSe Lab keeps on being very present in conferences around the world to share our findings and to learn from peers. This time, our PhD candidate Carolina Fortunato participated in the 83rd FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 31st August to 3 September. This event was under the theme "Pharmacy Forward: Performance, Collaboration and Health Transformation", which allowed Carolina to exchange ideas relevant to her current PhD project on the effect of anti-depressant medication during gestation on the offspring. 

On 24th July, the DiVErSe group had it's traditional Teambuilding Day! This year, after a lunch full of great talks and laughs, we put our teamwork and quick thinking skills to the test with an adrenaline-filled laser tag game, followed by a friendly bowling competition. This initiative was a perfect opportunity to step away from the lab and from our computers, to strengthen the bonds between our group members and create fun new memories. We took the time to reflect on the achievements and challenges we have had this year, and to look forward for the goals we have set for the year ahead. With a renewed energy and a shared vision, onwards!

From 14 to 17 July, CIBIT hosted a new edition of its Summer School, "A Trip to the Brain in Four Days!", aimed at bachelors and masters students from the fields of psychology, pharmacology, biomedical engineering, biotechnology, medicine or biochemistry.  The DiVErSe Lab joined the scientific program of this event: João Martins presented a talk on "Animal Experimentation", Francisco Ribeiro and Helena Ferreira conducted a workshop about the animal facilities, and João Neves presented "How can pre-clinical research help us uderstand neurodiversity?", showcasing the ongoing projects of our group.

Our PhD candidate João Neves was awarded a travel grant and registration fee waiver to join the Young Scientists Forum of the Federation of European Biochemistry Societies (FEBS) (2-5 July, Sapanca, Turkey) and in the 49th FEBS congress (5-9 July, Istanbul, Turkey). In these meetings, João presented a poster and a flash talk about his research project "MicroKiss: the beginning of a story about kisspeptin and microglia interaction in sex-specific social development". What a great opportunity for João to broaden his scientific horizons, share his work with leading experts, and expand his network!

João Neves, our 1st year PhD candidate, has presented his project in front of a jury committee on June 26. João is a student of the Doctoral Program in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine, from the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research of University of Coimbra, and his project is entitled "MicroKiss: How Kisspeptin and Microglia Shape the Sex-typical Neuronal Circuits of Social Behaviour". João's defense and scientific ideas were very well received by the jury, thus successfully achieving an important milestone in his PhD journey. Looking forward for what comes next!

From 7 to 11 June, our Principal Researcher Joana Gonçalves participated in the 10th Mediterranean Neuroscience Conference, in Chania - Crete, Greece. Here, Joana presented a talk about the latest research from our lab, under the title "Sex-dependent serotonergic modulation in autism spectrum disorder: insights from pre-clinical view". This meeting represented a great opportunity for networking with fellow neuroscientists with a common purpose: to share and to learn new discoveries and to establish frutiful collaborations for the future of Neuroscience. 

On 5-7 June, our PhD candidates Helena Ferreira and João Neves participated in the Neuroscience Needs Makers, a satellite workshop of the European Social Club Meeting 2025, organized by the DYNABrain ERA Chair Project. In this workshop, Helena and João learned hands-on the inner works of the Bonsai visual programming language software, and are now able to assemble interactive and fully automated workflows for behavioural paradigms in our lab. Here's to an even more advanced neuroscience research!

From 28 to 30 May, the XIX Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience (SPN) took place at Póvoa de Varzim. The DiVErSe Lab was present in this exciting event, where the portuguese community of neuroscientists comes together to meet their peers, share the latest data and discuss new discoveries. Our PhD students Carolina Fortunato, Francisco Ribeiro, Helena Ferreira and João Neves presented their work at the poster sessions of the meeting, under the topics of Glia, Neurodevelopment and Sensory Processing.  

Our PhD candidate Helena Ferreira has participated in the Sensation and Action 2025 Conference at Thun, Switzerland, 4-8 May. This is one of a series of bi-annual conferences on relevant, emerging topics of Neuroscience, jointly organized by the Allen Institute and by Circuit Neuroscience Basel. Helena had the opportunity to present her PhD project and preliminary results at the poster sessions, and interacted with top researchers in the fields of Sensory and Circuits Neuroscience. Until the next one!

Our Di(Y)VErSe initiative keeps going strong, and this time it was the turn of Francisco Ribeiro, PhD candidate, to teach us his crafting skills. We spent a very enjoyable hour teamed up to build an EVA foam doll. Among lots of glue, an hair dryer and many different coloured foam sheets, we were able to relax and share some laughs, as well as design a new mascot for our group! The next Di(Y)veRsE session is scheduled for April. Can you guess which handmade craft will be featured? Stay tuned.