Maria Rangel

Maria Rangel is a Full Professor at Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar of University of Porto. She has been responsible for courses on Chemical Biology, Thermodynamics, Biophysical Chemistry and Structural Analysis. She has supervised the work of several Post-Doctoral, Ph.D., M.Sc. and Project Students. Maria Rangel is a Bioinorganic Chemist whose domains of specialization are Inorganic and Physical Chemistry. She has large experience in the fields of Coordination Chemistry and Spectroscopy. Her research interests are focused in the role of metal ions in living organisms and, in the recent years she has worked on the design of Iron chelators for: (a) novel strategies to fight Infection through Fe deprivation; (b) treatment of Fe Overload and (c) Fe Sensing. Her interest in Iron Biology has been extended to Plant Nutrition and she is currently developing projects that aim the understanding of mineral nutrition processes and the design of Fe-chelates to address agricultural problems related with Fe deficiency. The development of insulin-like vanadium and zinc complexes and the study of B12 model compounds are two topics that have also been explored in previous years. Maria Rangel has been Principal Investigator of several multidisciplinary projects and has a considerable experience in coordinating teams developing research on the interfaces of chemistry and biology. At present she is Co-Director of the Integrated Master Course of Bioengineering; Member of the Scientific and Technical Board of REQUIMTE and Scientist in charge of NMR and EPR Laboratories of UPORTO