On June 22nd and 23rd, the 3rd International Meeting of Portuguese Researchers on Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) took place at the Centro de Reabilitação do Norte (CRN, CHVNG/E). Organized annually by the growing community of national SCI researchers, this event intends to highlight the cutting-edge work in the field, gathering the Portuguese SCI experts and inviting internationally renowned speakers.
This year's meeting was a collaborative effort between the Institute of Biomedicine (iBiMED) and the SCI Rehabilitation Unit of CRN. The Organizing Committee was led by our Principal Investigator, Sandra Vieira, and PhD student Maria Ribeiro da Cunha, a physiatrist and coordinator of the CRN SCI Rehabilitation Unit. Supporting the organization were PhD students from our lab — Bárbara Sousa, Bruna Cruz, and José Gabriel Figueiredo — along with CRN physiatrists Dr. Fátima Gandarez and Dr. Margarida Rodrigues.
The event featured a variety of activities, including oral presentations by international keynote speakers and iBiMED researchers, flash talks by PhD students, poster sessions, a guided tour through the CRN facilities, and two specialized workshops.
Keynote speaker Dr. Ceren Yarar-Fisher, Vice Chair of Research at Ohio State University and Director of Clinical Research at the Belford Center for SCI, delivered a talk titled 'A Rebel’s Approach to Change Spinal Cord Injury Care', highlighting her team's research on the impact of nutrition and the microbiome on SCI recovery.
Dr. Monica A. Perez from the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab at Northwestern University, Chicago, discussed innovative rehabilitation strategies, such as electrical stimulation, in her talk 'Neural Control of Movement after Spinal Cord Injury'.
Internal speakers included Sandra Vieira and Miguel Pais-Vieira, who presented their work on SCI rehabilitation through their talks 'Neural Activity during a 14-Month Brain-Computer Interface Protocol for SCI Rehabilitation' and 'Cell Therapies for Spinal Cord Injury: A Review of Clinical Trials and Therapeutic Potential', respectively.
To conclude the event, enologist and person with SCI lived experience, Bento Amaral shared his 'HumanWinety Project', followed by a Portuguese wine tasting and a jazz performance by a band from the University of Aveiro’s Department of Communication and Art.
Here are some of the best moments from our meeting:
It was a true pleasure to organize such an important event for the advancement of national SCI research, and we are deeply grateful to all the attendees for their participation and contributions, which helped make this gathering a success!
You can find furhter information about the 3rd Meeting of SCI Portuguese Researchers in the oficial site: https://sciptresearchers.wixsite.com/3rd-meeting
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