RNA in disease

ended

The Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM) ranks among the top research institutions in Portugal. However, the institute faces constraints related to reduced availability of national research funding and access to cutting-edge resources and scientific infrastructure. This twinning proposal (RiboMed) was set on the strategic vision of iMM to boost its recently enlarged community of young RNA researchers. In fact, while iMM has well-established communities working on neuroscience, immunology and infection, RNA biology is only now starting to expand as we recognize its centrality in human health. Our strategy includes: 1) Promoting scientific excellence through the implementation of joint research projects between iMM and the twinning partners. We will strengthen existing interactions and promote new collaborations through short-term staff exchanges, expert visits and joint lab retreats; 2) Nurturing a community of self-challenging and ambitious students and early-stage researchers at iMM by ensuring their early integration in international training and mentoring networks, facilitating conference attendance, and organizing summer schools, thematic courses and on-site training; 3) Raising international awareness of iMM through mobility of researchers, targeted dissemination and communication activities, and on-site organization of workshops and a major international conference; 4) Consolidating the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem at iMM through translation of basic findings into potential novel RNA biomarkers, RNA-based diagnostic assays and RNA therapeutic targets. We believe RiboMed is exceptionally timely, as it will allow the recently settled young RNA researchers to thrive at iMM. This, in turn, will place the institute in Lisbon within the core of European laboratories that are carrying on frontier research on how transcription and RNA processing shape and define the complexity of human disease.