Our researcher João Cardoso, from the Comparative Endocrinology and Integrative Biology group, went to Uppsala, Sweden as a guest research grant at the University of Uppsala.

Why did you go to Uppsala?

I’m a guest research grant at the University of Uppsala, Biomedical Center (BMC), Neuroscience Department (Pharmacology), and I went to study genes associated with memory and learning using zebrafish as an animal model.

What was the highlight of your visit?

Aside from work and the opportunity of being working here, it was the visit to a Moose park and being able to be close to one this giant animal and going to a typical Swedish “crayfish party” very popular during this time of the year.

To what extend does this visit open new opportunities for you or other CCMAR researchers?

With this project, I had the opportunity to work directly with Professor Dan Larhammar a worldwide recognized scientist in the field of genome evolution and comparative endocrinology/neurosciences with which I have an established collaboration. It was also privileged to work in such an old institution and experience the academic environment. Uppsala University is one of the oldest universities in Europe (founded in 1477). It has more than 40,000 students and among the University’s alumni, there are 15 Nobel Prize laureates including Carl Linnaeus, Anders Celsius, and Olof Rudbeck. Uppsala is a student town and one of its oldest cities in Sweden and is full of interesting monuments.