Research associate attends Nobel Laureate Meeting

Dr Andreia de Almeida, a postdoctoral research associate at Cardiff University’s School of Chemistry, has attended the 67th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting dedicated to chemistry.

The 67th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (#LiNo17) took place between 25th and 30th June 2017. It is an annual event where around 30 Nobel Laureates convene at Lindau to meet the next generation of leading scientists. Around 400–500 undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doc researchers from all over the world are invited to attend the event designed to foster the exchange between scientists of different generations, cultures, and disciplines.

Dr de Almeida’s research focuses on understanding the role of aquaporins in health and disease, especially cancer. For this, her research group uses gold compounds that are selective and potent inhibitors for these proteins. Additionally, she works in testing new metal-based drugs as anticancer agents.

She is enthusiastic about her research and the opportunity to meet a Nobel Laureate in the subject: ”Being chosen to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime event was truly an honour. I had the opportunity to meet highly motivated young scientists from around the world, working in the most varied fields of chemistry. The week was full of amazing lectures from Nobel Laureates, social events and great panel discussions on important topics, where we all had the opportunity to interact and ask questions.

From this meeting, I have some highlights. Firstly, Professor Martin Chalfie, who was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), talked about the importance of pre-prints for the academic world. Pre-print databases have been in use in physics for about 20 years and in the biology community for 2 years. The aim of these databases is to bring science to all, regardless of how rich their institution is, and allow discussions based on the content of the publications, rather than on impact factor.

Secondly, I had the honour to meet Professor Peter Agre, who is a great scientist and agreed to sign my PhD thesis. He talked to us about his inspiring work in malaria prevention and treatment in Africa as the director of the John Hopkins Institute for Malaria. He also talked about how he travels the world advocating the human rights of scientists and trying to bring science to countries that are in a political turmoil.

Lastly, I would like to highlight the talks of Professor Harald zur Hausen, who talked about the importance of vaccinating girls and also boys against HPV, and Professor Aaron Chiechanover, who gave a great talk about personalized medicine and the importance of favouring personalized treatments.

Overall, it was an amazing experience and I would suggest any young scientist to apply to the next editions.”

To find out more about Dr de Almeida and her research, please visit the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting blog, which features an interview with her.