The team led by João Gonçalves received a donation from Novartis, in the amount of 25 thousand euros, to reinforce the diagnostic capacity of COVID-19 at the Center that has been operating at FFUL since March 27, 2020.

With this support, the Research Institute for Medicines (iMed.ULisboa) of FFUL may, jointly with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology (DMI) of FFUL, increase the detection and screening capacity of SARS-Cov-2.

This donation is part of the “COVID-19 Response Fund”, an international fund from Novartis (20 million dollars) designed to help communities most affected by the pandemic. So far the pharmaceutical company has donated, in Portugal, around 375 thousand euros to various organizations.