Science Merit Award to Hermínia de Lencastre
Oeiras, 3.07.2018
Hermínia de Lencastre, Full Professor at ITQB NOVA and Head of Laboratory Microbiology of Human Pathogens Unit ITQB NOVA, also Senior Research Associate, The Rockefeller University, NY, USA, received the “Science Merit Award” from the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education today, as a recognition for her outstanding contribution to science in Portugal. The award was announced today during the opening session of Ciência 2018 conference in Lisbon.
Hermínia de Lencastre has devoted her research on microbial genetics, focusing on biochemistry and molecular biology of Gram-Positive bacteria and phages, including mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and spread of resistance genes and clones. She has published 8 book chapters, 266 papers in international scientific Journals with referees and 12 papers in national periodicals with referees/not indexed in PubMED.
She has been Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator of more than 50 Projects funded either by National (JNICT, FCT, FCG) or International Grant Agencies (EU, NATO, NIH), and has supervised and/or Co-Supervised more than 18 Postdoctoral fellows, 38 PhD students, 10 Master Degree students and 150 Undergraduate- and Research students. Hermínia de Lencastre is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, Society of General Microbiology, European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Portuguese Society for Microbiology and Portuguese Society for Biochemistry. (Hermínia de Lencastre full cv)
On 11th December 2017 Hermínia de Lencastre gave her Last Lesson at ITQB NOVA on "Antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus: genes, phenotypes and clones" before officialy retiring as a Professor.
“We are very proud of this distinction, that highlights Hermínia de Lencastre very important work on bacterial colonization and pathogenicity”, said Cláudio M. Soares, ITQB NOVA Dean. "It is also the result of the important contribution of Hermínia de Lencastre to the development of a Molecular Microbiology School in Portugal, since she has been responsible for supervising some of the most proficous researchers in that field in Portugal. It is an honor to have a scientist from our institute awarded again this year with the Science Merit Award”. In 2016 the award was also given to ITQB NOVA researcher Claudina Pousada and in 2017 to ITQB NOVA researcher Manuela Chaves.
Highlights of Hermínia de Lencastre research and career
- ITQB Researcher leads international publication ranking
- How bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics - Work involving ITQB researchers published in PNAS, 2007
- Antibiotic Awareness Day - ITQB's role in studying antibiotic resistance, 2009
- Best oral communication on pediatric infectious diseases, 2009
- Putting bacteria on the map - Resistant Staphylococcus aureus concentrate in hospitals, 2010
- Tracking the life story of an MRSA clone - High-throughput genomics for molecular epidemiology published in Science, 2010
- High prevalence of MRSA in Portuguese buses - Researchers highlight the need for infection control measures, 2011
- It takes three for antibiotic resistance - Additional gene suggests new model for regulating methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus, 2012
- Vaccination: paying it forward - Following 15-year evolution of pneumococci, vaccine and antibiotic use in Portuguese children, 2016
- The emergence of antibiotic resistance - ITQB NOVA researchers have shown how antibiotic resistance emerged from an harmless gene in bacteria, 2017
