Researcher profile

Xapelli S

Sara Xapelli graduated in Biology from the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) in 2003 and obtained her PhD from the same Institution in 2008. For her PhD Sara studied the neuroprotective and antiepileptic role of neuropeptide Y and performed the work at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC), Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal, at the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark and at the University of Alberta, Canada. Then Sara performed her first postdoc at CNC, with an internship at the University of Southern Denmark. In 2011, she performed a second postdoc at Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM) where she implemented the research field of neural stem cells. In 2016 Sara obtained an "investigador FCT" position. Since 2018 Sara Xapelli is an Assistant Professor at Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa (FMUL) and is currently a Member of the Pedagogical Council of FMUL and Member of the Scientific Council of the MSc and PhD in Cognitive Science. She teaches the curricular units of: Pharmacology, Neuropharmacology, Biology of Neural Stem Cells and Seminars in Neurosciences of the Integrated MSc degree in medicine (FMUL). She also teaches Pharmacology for the Integrated MSc degree in biomedical Engineer (IST) and teaches for the MSc and PhD program in Neuroscience (FMUL) and MSc and PhD program in Cognitive Science (ULisboa). Sara is the PI of the Xapelli’s group at Institute of Pharmacology and Neurosciences (https://sxapelli.wixsite.com/laboratory). Her research group investigates modulators of neural stem cells to boost adult neurogenesis and oligodendrogenesis as a strategy for brain functional repair and aims to exploit them as a novel therapeutic platform to counteract brain pathologies such as Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy and Major Depressive Disorder. She is currently involved in the supervision of 5 PhD students and 3 MSc students. As a result of her work, she has published 5 book chapters and 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Sara has received prestigious awards, including the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) Career Development Grant in 2021 and the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) Early Career Award in 2022. Sara has been actively involved in various scientific roles, currently serving as the vice-president of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience, member of the Executive Committee of the Mind-Brain College of the University of Lisbon, and member of the General Meeting Board of the Portuguese Society of Stem Cells and Cell Therapy. She also played a pivotal role in organizing scientific events, she was conference chair of the Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience 2019, member of the organizing and scientific committees of the FENS Regional Meeting 2023 and of the ISN-ESN Meeting 2023 program committee and she is currently member of ISN Schools Initiative Committee for 2023-2025. Sara has been an evaluator of several grant agencies, such as Marie-Curie PF and DN, Horizon Health projects, French National Research Agency and EPFL Science Seed Fund. She has an extensive collaborative network, with a recent funded Erasmus+ Cooperation partnerships in higher education and a transnational Portugal – France grant. In December of 2023 she was awarded with a European Grant under the call Pathways to Synergies.