Dr Celia Carlini, a researcher at the Brain Institute of RS, went to England for the event Venoms & Toxins 2019, one of the most relevant in the area of Toxinology. She gave a presentation titled Proteus mirabilis urease: unsuspected non-enzymatic biological properties relevant to pathogenesis”. For several years Carlini, who also serves as the coordinator of the Laboratory of Neurotoxins – LaNeurotox, has been studying ureases, which are toxins produced by many pathogenic organisms such as the bacteria Proteus mirabilis and Helicobacter pylori.

After that, she went to Belgium to meet her collaborator Dr. Jan Tytgat to talk about the doctoral project of Carlos Gabriel Moreira de Almeida, a student in the Graduate Program in Medicine and Health Sciences of PUCRS. Almeida was doing an internship at KU Leuven, on a grant from CAPES-PRINT.
Finally, Carlini went to Austria, to join the XXIII Workshop of the European Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group, presenting two posters. Her presentations were very well received by the participants of the event: “Non-enzymatic properties of Helicobacter pylori urease and Proteus mirabilis urease: unsuspected non-enzymatic properties that potentially contribute to pathogenesis”.

The event sparked a lot of discussions on the association of gastrointestinal microbiota and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. “We were introduced to various exponents in the field of Helicobacter. This will be very important for us, as it will earn us more visibility, and allow us to make new partners”, she says.