Neuroscientists at the Institute for Research in Life and Health Sciences (ICVS), at the University of Minho School of Medicine, have made significant progress in understanding how the brain processes positive and negative stimuli. Their findings, published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, shed new light on the role of neurons in a region of our brain that is key to perceiving pleasure and aversion, the nucleus accumbens.

ICVS researchers Agostinho Carvalho and Patrícia Maciel won the CaixaResearch Health 2024 award, a competition run by the “la Caixa” Foundation.

Bruno Silva and Marcos Fernández-Rodríguez, two PhD students at the ICVS in the surgical sciences and allied technology (SS&AT) research team, obtained three prestigious awards at the MICCAI 2024 international conference held in Marrakesh from the 6th to 10th of October for Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention.

Samuel Gonçalves, researcher at the ICVS, is honored this Wednesday, October 9th, with the Maria de Sousa prize awarded by the BIAL Foundation. The award-winning project tries to understand how the metabolism of our cells can contribute to susceptibility to aspergilosis disease, allow us to find new therapeutic targets and develop new personalized medicine strategies.

“Breathing is Essential! Breathe in, Breathe out and Learn about it!”, the activity developed by ICVS researchers was a success at the European Researchers’ Night, an event that took place last Friday, September 27th, at Forum Braga.

The ICVS researchers are part of 66 UMinho scientists who are in the 2% most cited in the world over the last year, according to a study by Stanford University (USA) and the Elsevier editorial group.