On Monday 30th January at 6 p.m. in the Rectory of the University of Porto (Praça Gomes Teixeira), the Secretary of State for Science, Leonor Parreira and the ex-Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Mariano Gago, will attend the commemoration ceremony for the 15th anniversary of the Graduate Program in Basic and Applied Biology (GABBA) at the University of Porto. GABBA remains a pioneer PhD program that has seen some of the most outstanding young Portuguese scientists, such as Rui Costa and Pedro Carvalho; two of the five Portuguese scientists who this week received a prestigious North American research grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
To mark the anniversary of the GABBA Program, the University of Porto will launch the book "GABBA: A decade and a half in the life of a graduate program (1996-2011)", from the author Diogo Manoel, which contains stories, discoveries, the present and future of the 166 researchers that over the past 15 years were a part of GABBA.
Maria de Sousa, researcher and co-founder of the program, who was recently knighted with the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword by the Portuguese President for her scientific achievements, will give an official presentation of the book in this session that will be attended by the University Dean and the President of the Portuguese Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education, Alberto Amaral, as well as Leonor Parreira, Mariano Gago and various researchers that have been involved in GABBA as teachers and students.
In each academic year, the GABBA Program receives 12 candidates with backgrounds in relevant areas of Basic and Applied Biology that are awarded the possibility to undertake research in some of the best laboratories in the country and abroad, as well as a doctoral grant for 4 years. In fact, 63% of graduates from the GABBA Program are currently working in foreign research centres, the majority of which are in the UK and the USA.
The GABBA Program was founded in 1996 through the fusion of 4 Masters Programs from 3 faculties of the University of Porto: Sciences (Masters in Genetics), Medicine (Cell Biology and Oncobiology) and the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (Immunology). As well as the links to these faculties, GABBA has benefitted from constant interaction with the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC) and the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology (IPATIMUP) of the University of Porto.
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