Sara Goncalves Pereira

Sara Bernardes Pereira (Sara B. Pereira) graduated in Biology by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto in 2005. That year, she joined the Cellular and Applied Microbiology group at the IBMC - Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology as a trainee student, where she collaborated in the study of cyanobacterial hydrogenases and H2 production. Afterwards, under the supervision of Prof. Paula Tamagnini (FCUP & IBMC) and Prof. Roberto De Philippis (University of Florence), she initiated a new field of research within the group, focused on the biosynthetic pathways of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in cyanobacteria and the characterization and exploitation of these polymers for heavy metal bioremediation. In 2010 she obtained her PhD in Biology from the University of Porto, presenting the thesis "Cyanobacterial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS): Insights in the production / biosynthesis and applications in heavy metals removal.". After that, she continued working on the production, characterization and biotechnological/biomedical applications of cyanobacterial EPS, first as a postdoctoral fellow and later as a junior researcher . While working on this line of research, she spent several months as visiting researcher in the Dept. of Agricultural Biotechnology/Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences of the University of Florence and the Dept. of Chemical and Process Engineering/Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Sheffield. Currently, Sara B. Pereira is a project manager in the Expression Regulation in Cancer group of i3S. Sara B. Pereira published 2o+ papers in international peer review journals/book chapters, is author of a granted patent (US11458202B2) and participated in several European and National research projects and bi-lateral actions. She was also involved in the organization of international scientific meetings. In addition, she (co)supervised PhD, master and undergraduate students and collaborated with seminars and workshops for the students of the Biology degree, Cell and Molecular Biology master and Biotechnology applications and synthetic biology master (FCUP). She is also a coordenator of a Mass Spectrometry-based proteomic course of the MCBiology Doctoral Program (IBMC, ICBAS, FCUP; UP).