CENTRO DE NEUROCIENCIAS E BIOLOGIACELULAR ASSOCIACAO

Their core work

CNC is a neuroscience and cell biology research centre based in Coimbra, Portugal, focused on understanding brain disorders and developing therapeutic strategies. Their core work spans blood-brain barrier drug delivery, mitochondrial dysfunction in metabolic diseases, and microRNA-based screening for infection and cardiac injury. They train early-career researchers through Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships and translate laboratory findings toward clinical applications in areas such as glioblastoma treatment, neuropsychiatric disorders, and rare disease gene therapies.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their earlier H2020 period (2016–2018), CNC focused on metabolic disease (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, mitochondrial profiling), cardiac injury, and broad researcher training including technology transfer and staff mobility. From 2019 onward, the centre pivoted sharply toward brain-focused research — blood-brain barrier transport, neuropsychiatric disorders, neuronal polarity, and glioblastoma — while also developing exosome and polymer-based drug delivery platforms. This evolution shows a clear consolidation from diverse biomedical topics into a unified neuroscience-plus-delivery programme.

CNC is converging on brain-targeted drug delivery using engineered biological vectors (exosomes, nanoparticles), making them a strong future partner for CNS therapeutics and precision neuro-medicine projects.

How they like to work

CNC overwhelmingly leads its projects: 12 of 16 H2020 grants were coordinated by them, mostly individual Marie Curie fellowships where they host incoming researchers. This means they are experienced at managing EU grants and hosting international talent, but their consortia tend to be small (fellowship-scale). When they do participate in larger collaborative projects (METAFLUIDICS, TREATMENT, NANOSTEM, ARDAT), they contribute specialized biological expertise rather than project management.

CNC has collaborated with 93 unique partners across 21 countries, giving them a broad European network despite being a mid-sized Portuguese research centre. Their connections span Western and Southern Europe, with particular strength in biomedical and training-oriented networks.

What sets them apart

CNC combines deep neuroscience expertise with practical drug delivery engineering — they don't just study brain disorders, they build the transport vehicles (exosomes, nanothermometry, polymer architectures) to get therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier. Their strong track record hosting Marie Curie fellows (7+ individual fellowships) makes them an ideal partner for training-intensive proposals. Located in Coimbra alongside a major university, they offer a cost-effective Southern European base with proven EU grant management capability.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DYNABrain
  Largest grant (EUR 2.5M) and a Widening Participation project, signalling CNC's ambition to become a regional centre of excellence in integrative neuroscience and advanced doctoral training.
• ExoBBB
  Represents the convergence of CNC's two core strengths — exosome engineering and blood-brain barrier research — into a single RNA delivery platform for neuronal disorders.
• Syn2Psy
  A EUR 713K training network coordinated by CNC linking synaptic biology to psychiatric disease, demonstrating their ability to lead multi-partner neuroscience consortia.