Champalimaud Foundation Inaugurates New State-of-the-Art Medical Research Center

LISBON, Portugal, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ --Two years after the first stone was laid in the "Docas do Pedroucas" area of Lisbon, the Champalimaud Foundation has opened the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown. The Foundation welcomed guests, colleagues and collaborators from around the world to Portugal on October 5th to mark the inauguration of a center that will strive to make crucial breakthroughs in the fields of neuroscience and cancer research.

On a day marking the centenary of the establishment of the Portuguese Republic, the inauguration ceremony was presided over the President of Portugal, Anibal Cavaco Silva. President Cavaco Silva was joined at this historic event by Prime Minister Jose Socrates, President of the Champalimaud Foundation Leonor Beleza, President of the Foundation's Scientific Committee and Nobel Laureate James Watson, the architect of the center Charles Correa, and many other dignitaries and guests from around the world. The ceremony provided an emotional atmosphere in which to celebrate Portugal's achievements in proclaiming the Republic and also to look forward to the future, as the Champalimaud Foundation seeks to bring the very best scientific talent to Portugal and build world class research teams. In this context, it was fitting that the dedication ceremonies were attended by many of the individuals who have helped to make its early development such a great success.

The Champalimaud Center for the Unknown is a multidisciplinary center for translational research of excellence, with ideal conditions that have already begun to attract and retain the best researchers, academics and medical doctors in the fields of neurosciences and oncology from Portugal and abroad. The Center includes laboratories for basic and clinical research, an ambulatory care center, a vivarium, an auditorium, conference rooms, teaching facilities and an exhibition area. The state of the art facilities for basic and clinical research and for teaching will foster front line research as well as post-graduate and doctorate programs, and the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and cancer patients.

In order to honor the historical relevance of the site - from where the famous Portuguese navigators departed in the 15th and 16th centuries - and to promote the relationship of the citizens with the sea and the "unknown", the research center will allow free access of the public to the waterfront through wide landscaped areas around its buildings.

SOURCE Champalimaud Foundation