Mónica Bettencourt-Dias facts for kids

Mónica Bettencourt-Dias (born in 1974) is a famous Portuguese scientist. She is a biochemist and a cellular biologist. This means she studies the tiny parts that make up living things.

She leads a research group at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. Her team studies how cells grow and divide. This process is called cell cycle regulation. For her amazing work, she has won several important awards. These include the Pfizer Award for Basic Research and the Keith Porter Prize. She also received the Eppendorf Young European Investigator Award.

In 2009, she became a Young Investigator Fellow for the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Later, in 2015, she became a full member of EMBO. Mónica Bettencourt-Dias became the Director of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in November 2017.

Her Life and Scientific Journey

Mónica Bettencourt Carvalho was born in 1974 in Lisbon, Portugal. When she was a child, she dreamed of becoming an astrophysicist. She started her university studies in biochemistry at the University of Lisbon.

After her first degree, she began a PhD program. She studied cell biology at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. She finished her studies at University College London in 2001. There, she earned her doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology. Her early research looked at how heart cells in salamanders can grow back.

She then continued her research at the University of Cambridge. At the same time, she studied at Birkbeck College in London. Her work focused on kinases. These are special proteins that help control how our bodies use energy. They also help cells send messages to each other.

Mónica discovered something important about a kinase called PLK4. She found that PLK4 helps control how many centrosomes an organism has. Centrosomes are tiny parts inside cells that help them divide correctly. Her studies also focused on how scientists can explain their work better to everyone.

Returning to Portugal and New Discoveries

After finishing her studies, Mónica Bettencourt-Dias came back to Portugal in 2006. She opened her own laboratory at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. Here, she continued to study how centrioles form and work. Centrioles are parts of centrosomes.

In 2007, she won the Eppendorf Young European Investigator Award. In 2009, she was chosen as an European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Young Investigator Fellow.

In 2010, she received a special grant from the European Research Council. This money helped her study problems with centrioles. She wanted to know how mistakes in cell division can lead to serious diseases. These diseases include tumors or problems with having children.

Her research has earned her many honors. In 2012, she received the Pfizer Award for Basic Research. That same year, she won the Keith Porter Prize. This prize is given by the American Society for Cell Biology. She has written many scientific papers and helps edit several science magazines. In 2015, she became a full member of the EMBO.

Mónica Bettencourt-Dias has been the Director of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência since February 1, 2018. She also led EU-LIFE from 2022 to 2023. This group helps support excellent research across Europe.

See also

In Spanish: Mónica Bettencourt-Dias para niños