The Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC) is a nonprofit research institute founded in 1990, aiming to foster biomedical research and multidisciplinary graduate teaching at the University of Coimbra. CNC was the first established “Laboratório Associado” in Portugal, and it has steadily increased the scope of scientific competences over the years, with a strong focus on the exploitation of the fundamental mechanisms of aging and brain diseases.

To cope with the main expected societal impact of biomedical research a strong integrative effort was made to link our basic research achievements to the biotechnology and applied research, and to the regional economical and productive tissue. The strong partnership developed between CNC and the Clinical Faculty allows for the translation of basic knowledge into clinical applications, enhanced by partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry. As a founding partner of Biocant – Biotechnology Innovation Center, and of the Health Cluster Portugal, CNC shows a clear commitment towards promoting technology transfer and the creation of novel biomedical and biotechnology enterprises.

Relate to ITN-TREATMENT, CNC is committed to the training researchers and clinicians through several international PhD Programs, including the MIT-Portugal, the European Neuroscience Campus Network (ENC-Network), the Network of European Neuroscience Institutes (ENInet) and the Harvard Medical School-Portugal Program. The CNC will be responsible for hosting 2 ESRs, co-supervision and Secondments.