Hugo Couto Moreira, a researcher at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra (CNC-UC), has been awarded a prestigious INPhINIT Retaining doctoral fellowship from Fundação “la Caixa” to pursue groundbreaking work on autoimmune diseases.

His project, titled “A strategy to tackle autoimmunity: Reprogramming self-reactive T cells towards regulatory T cells using Transcription Factors,” aims to restore immune tolerance—preventing the immune system from attacking the body’s own tissues. By reprogramming self-reactive T cells into regulatory T cells using a transcription factor-based approach, the project offers a novel, antigen-independent therapeutic strategy for autoimmune conditions.

The research builds on successful cell reprogramming strategies developed by the Immune Cell Reprogramming groupat CNC-UC and could pave the way for more precise and durable treatments that do not rely on generalized immunosuppression.

The INPhINIT Retaining programme supports 30 early-career researchers annually to conduct doctoral studies in Spain or Portugal. Funded by the “la Caixa” Foundation, it is one of Europe’s most competitive and well-supported PhD fellowships, offering financial, academic, and professional development support.