Profile

With a degree in Medicine (1983) and a PhD in Cell Biology (1988), Maria do Carmo Fonseca is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. She is President of the João Lobo Antunes Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM) and a member of the Scientific Board of GenoMed (iMM’s spin-off company dedicated to molecular medicine diagnostics). She is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, and a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Cell Science and RNA. In 2001, she was appointed Commander of the Military Order of Sant’Iago da Espada. She has been awarded the Pfizer | Sociedade das Ciências Médicas de Lisboa Research Prize (1981, 1989), the José Sala-Trepat | Fondation de France Prize (2002), the DuPont Iberian Science Prize (2002), the Gulbenkian Science Prize (2007), the Pessoa Prize (2010), the Femina Prize for Merit in Science (2011), the D. Antónia Ferreira Prize for Women Entrepreneurs (2013), and the Aboim Sande Lemos-Portuguese Identity Prize (2018). She has also received the Gold Medal of the Ministry of Health (2012) and the Centenary Prize awarded by the students of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon “in recognition of her invaluable contribution to the pursuit of the mission of this institution in defending the interests of students and promoting their human, cultural and scientific training” (2013).