Research Projects

The theoretical understanding of human motor control and learning has a strong impact on the diagnosis and treatment of motor disorders, and vice versa. Recent progress has been made in the understanding of motor control and learning, particularly with respect to understanding the functional role of neuro-behavioural variability that is inherent to...

Despite enormous research efforts across academia and pharmaceutical industry, all clinical trials over the last decade have failed in finding a treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) which remains one of the greatest challenges in drug discovery. Taking consideration all together three prevailing AD hypotheses: Amyloid Cascade, Metal Ions and...

TWIN2PIPSA will improve R&I capacities of FC.ID/ULisboa (Portugal) in the field of protein folding biophysics and conformational diseases by partnering in joint Twinning activities with three world-leading research and technological development performers: the University of Cambridge (UCAM), the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), and Tel Aviv...

Protein misfolding diseases (PMDs) are a large group of human disorders caused by protein misfolding and include serious conditions with high socio-economic impact, such as Alzheimer’s disease, systemic amyloidosis, obesity, cystic fibrosis, retinitis pigmentosa and type 2 diabetes. The vast majority of them remain incurable so there is currently a...

Growing evidence suggests that unbalanced Wnt signalling contributes to early stages of Alzheimer´s Disease (AD). mRNA levels of the Wnt antagonist Dikkoff1 (Dkk1) are increased in AD brains and by Amyloid-ß (Aß) in vitro. Importantly, suppression of Dkk1 activity protects synapses from Aß. Genome-Wide Association Studies also provide evidence for...

Most of secreted proteins transit through the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the Golgi apparatus. However, eukaryotic cells secrete cytosolic proteins, which do not enter the ER. Proteins that use this “unconventional secretory pathway” include factors with critical functions and deregulation of their transport is associated to a wide range of...

What defines the functional specialization of a cell is its unique proteome. Proteins need to be translated and properly folded to ensure their biological function. Several protein quality control pathways have arisen during evolution, some of them specialized in monitoring protein folding in specific organelles . As a result of ageing, animals...

Dementia is a syndrome in which there is cognitive function deterioration and memory loss. Alzheimer's disease consists or contributes to 60–70% of dementia cases. At present, worldwide around 50 million people have dementia, but nearly 10 million new cases are added every year. The total number of people suffering from dementia is projected to...

The DementiA Research Enabled by IT project responds to the European Parliament's 2011 resolution for a European Initiative on Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and the EU Year of the Brain 2014 Initiative. It delivers the first patient-specific predictive models for early differential diagnosis of dementias and their evolution. Its...

This multidisciplinary project examines the mechanisms in the mind and brain that underpin phoneme binding. We explore how knowledge of the sounds and meanings of words prevents their phonemes from recombining (so that errors such as ‘bedding wells’ for ‘wedding bells’ are avoided). Phoneme binding plays a fundamental role in understanding and...