Measuring time is a typically human activity, and anniversaries are occasions to question what we do with time, how we value it, escape from it or use it to transform our lives. This year, the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) celebrates the turning of its first decade of life and, of course, we also look back to think about the future. The way the Institute was born was a milestone for its mentality. The IMM was born out of the merger of five research units dispersed in the Faculty of Medicine, in an effort to bring together synergies and break away from “feudal” culture, which feeds individual egos and blocks up scientific advancement. Another indelible landmark is the fact that the IMM is embedded in a large university hospital, enabling physicians to carry out research and researchers to have direct contact with the real problems of medicine.

We knew we had to reach a critical mass of scientists before translating our science into an asset for patients. Accordingly, our concern has always been to attract brilliant minds and hold on to talented individuals. Today, the Institute employs 660 people, 480 of whom researchers, including foreigners from 30 nationalities and four continents, who saw the IMM as an important step in their professional careers.

The path we have trodden in this first decade bore fruit – we are undoubtedly one of the leading research centres in the country, internationally recognized and with a portfolio of scientific findings we are proud of. For instance, at the IMM we found genetic mutations that cause leukaemia and genes associated with the risk of stroke in the Portuguese population; we have developed a new strategy to inhibit the replication of dengue virus and discovered a new therapy for sepsis; we demonstrated, for the first time, the existence of a molecular link between malaria infection and cholesterol absorption routes; we have developed an innovative strategy for a malaria vaccine and identified new ways to tackle cancer via the immune system.

Internationalization, interfacing with business and industry, and the confrontation between various fields of knowledge are the areas in which we will invest over the next decade. We want our research units to become even more malleable, more bold and more useful to the Portuguese.

However, it is not possible to plan the next decade without society, which means all of us. Therefore, in this anniversary year, we invite citizens, schools and hospitals, medical societies and patient associations, governors and business people to know us better and to be part of our science for years to come. This is because what we do is everyone’s business.

Maria do Carmo-Fonseca
Director of IMM and Professor at the University of Lisbon