A laboratory of SalivaTec, a platform of CIIS (Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Saúde), was certified by ERS and INSA to perform the molecular diagnosis of COVID-19, becoming part of the Portuguese Network of Laboratories for the Diagnosis of COVID-19.

The certification of the laboratory follows the development of the "CoVTec in Saliva" project - a project funded by the RESEARCH 4 COVID-19 programme of the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia 2020 - whose main objective was to establish new protocols for the diagnosis of COVID-19, using saliva as a non-invasive diagnostic tool.

The infrastructure, now enabled, is based at the Faculdade de Medicina Dentária of Universidade Católica Portuguesa and constitutes a R&TD Platform to support the SNS (National Health System), in Viseu, for a faster response and a more efficient management of this pandemic.

Católica's certified laboratory is, in partnership with the municipality of Viseu, providing support to community screening in Viseu, namely to athletes on their return to sports activities. The use of saliva as a non-invasive approach was welcomed as an added value by all sports leaders.

Related news:

• Innovative methodology of SalivaTec used in the COVID-19 testing in the Municipality of Viseu

Isaura Martins, a Junior Group Leader at  Católica Medical School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, was recognized with a prestigious research award by Wings for Life Foundation, a globally recognized non-profit committed to funding research aimed at finding a cure for spinal cord injuries. 

This prize highlights Isaura Martins’ groundbreaking research on the role of a subset of pericytes in spinal cord injury repair and regeneration.

“I am deeply honored to receive the Wings for Life Award” said the researcher, adding: “Spinal cord injury remains a devastating condition with limited therapeutic options and no cure. I believe that by shifting our focus into the vasculature, particularly on this subset of pericytes, we might unlock new ways to promote a better microenvironment within the spinal cord tissue, bringing us closer to fully understand this disorder and to discover new viable treatments.”

Isaura Martins started this work at the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, where the researcher did her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Leonor Saúde.

Now, at Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Saúde, Isaura Martins is spearheading this innovative study to investigate how pericytes - a specialized type of cells that wrap the blood vessels and are important for their stability - can contribute to tissue repair and functional recovery after spinal cord injury.

Recently she identified a protein that is expressed in pericytes only after injury. Her research aims now to uncover how the pericytes that express this protein, MYLIP, interact with the spinal cord's microenvironment, composed by all the cells and molecules that are important for its function and structure.

Understanding how these pericytes can affect key processes in spinal cord injury, such as inflammation, can be a promising strategy to improve natural repair mechanisms. 

The award underscores Wings for Life's mission to support pioneering research with the potential to transform the lives of millions affected by spinal cord injuries worldwide and contributed to establishing Isaura Martins’ new research group at Católica Medical School, where she intends to further explore how vascular and perivascular cells contribute for spinal cord repair after injury. 

Find out more about the Católica research group

Find out more about the Wings for Life Foundation

Researchers from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health of the Instituto de Ciências da Saúde (CIIS-ICS), Professor Ana Mineiro, Professor Alexandre Castro Caldas and Master Mara Moita, published an original research article on language evolution in the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology.

The article is entitled “Disentangling Pantomime From Early Sign in a New Sign Language: Window Into Language Evolution Research”.

Check the article here.

The identification of supporters with a sports club has a powerful effect on the decision to buy the products of the brands sponsoring the club. A new study shows that even if we do not like a drink sponsored by our club, we are more likely to buy it, and for more money. 

The study with the title "Sports ingroup love does not make me like a sponsor's beverage but gets me buying it", developed by an interdisciplinary team, was published today in PLOS One. This study, funded by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health (CIIS), was designed by Ana Maria Abreu, a researcher in the area of Experimental Psychology from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, together with Rui Biscaia from the area of Sports Management (University of Bath). But this project only came to life when computer engineers Sara Franco and Sandra Gama (Instituto Superior Técnico) joined the team, allowing the assessment of brain activity associated with emotions during a tasting of a drink (presented as a sponsor of the team with which the participants identified or as a sponsor of the rival team). "It was Sara Franco, a brilliant master's student from IST, who raised the quality of this work by introducing the computer-brain interface that allowed the reading of positive and negative emotions during the tasting of the drink" tells Ana Maria Abreu. 

The research team studied the impact of identification with a sports club on the sensory experience of the taste of a drink sponsoring each participant's (football) team or rival team. While many studies show that identification with a team leads to the decision to consume the sponsoring products, little is known about the influence of identification with a sports team on the consumption experience itself.

"We thought that a big Benfica or Sporting fan would have a more pleasurable experience trying the drink that sponsored their team. We thought that this phenomenon would follow sensory mechanisms. In other words, the taste experience itself would be more positive and this experience would lead to the decision to consume." says Ana Maria Abreu.

However, the team was surprised when they realised that the emotions of participants who tried the drink sponsoring their team, were not very different from the emotions of participants who drank the drink sponsoring the rival team. "It seemed that no one had much appreciation for the drink. However, everyone expressed that the drink was pleasant, perhaps out of sympathy or cordiality" says Ana Maria Abreu, underlining the inconsistency between the psychophysiological data and the actual responses of the study participants.

Despite the consistent lack of appreciation for the taste of the drink, and the consistent approval of the drink by all participants, only those who identified with the team sponsored by the drink were willing to pay more for the drink.

"Our study emphasizes the overwhelming influence of the brand in consumption decisions, weighing much more than the quality of the drink itself" says the researcher from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

Check the study here.