Ilana Gabanyi studies the interactions between gut-bacterial signal and brain neurons. In 2022, during her postdoctoral work, she demonstrated that microbe-derived compounds are found in the brain and can influence neuronal activity, with some of these interactions being sex- and age-dependent. Her team is now taking this discovery one step further to explore gut-derived bacterial compounds in the brain and how do sex and age hormones and alter neuronal responses.
Originally from Brazil, Gabanyi conducted her postdoctoral work at the Rockefeller University in the United States and the Institute Pasteur in France before establishing her group at the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine in Oeiras, a city located on the outskirts of Lisbon. “After almost ten years abroad, I needed somewhere that felt closer to home”, she explains. “Culturally and emotionally, Portugal became the best compromise between staying in Europe and being closer to Brazil.”
The transition from postdoctoral associate to young principal investigator was made smoother by the support of an EMBO Installation Grant. “The grant came at the perfect moment”, Gabanyi notes. “I had already moved to Portugal when I obtained it, and it provided me with the flexibility, visibility and the resources needed to properly launch my lab. And the EMBO Lab Leadership courses, whether on leadership or negotiation, were incredibly helpful. No one teaches you how to become a PI.”
Gabanyi found Oeiras, and the whole country-at-large, to be an unexpectedly vibrant scientific community despite Portugal’s geographic remoteness from major European transportation and scientific hubs. “People collaborate a lot and there is a real sense of solidarity. I’ve felt incredibly welcomed. It’s been a rewarding move, scientifically and personally.”
