Luara Simões holds a PhD in Microbiology (2019) from the Federal University of Lavras/University of Minho. She was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Minho (2020-2023), contributing to projects in bioactive compounds and DNA barcoding. In 2024, she became a Junior Researcher at CIIMAR, focusing on microalgae-based aquafeeds. She is currently an Assistant Researcher at the University of Minho, working on the STOParasites project under the PRR-Blue Bioeconomy.

Her research focuses on DNA barcoding, and microbial bioactive compounds, emphasizing sustainable marine resource management and high-throughput molecular methodologies. She is currently involved in a project that aims to optimize molecular methodologies to track fish parasites and contribute to the sustainable management of marine resources, ensuring impactful applications of molecular tools in real-world challenges.

DNA barcoding, fish parasites, marine resource management, microbial metabolism, bioactive compounds

Ricardo Franco-Duarte has a BSc in Biology (2005, University of Porto) and completed his MSc in Molecular Genetics in 2008 (University of Minho), achieving the highest score (20/20). After his PhD (2014, University of Minho), he received two post-doc fellowships. Since 2023 he is an assistant researcher at CBMA, under a CEEC-Ind contract from FCT, obtained as the national top position with the maximum score.

Ricardo Franco-Duarte’s interests focus on microbial biotechnology, blending experimental and computational methods to advance our understanding of microbial systems. His work integrates omics and data science, enabling multi and cross-omics approaches to study microbial diversity. In the last years, his research allowed to unravel particular metabolic signatures of non-conventional yeasts, in environmental contexts.

omics, data science, computational biology, artificial intelligence, microbial biotechnology, bioproduction of added-value compounds

Holds a BSc in Biology (University of Porto), an MSc in Analytical Bioscience (University Huddersfield/University Leeds), and a PhD from the School of Tropical Medicine (University Liverpool) specializing in mycobacteria. She received an FCT postdoctoral position on mycobacteria and is currently working on fish-associated pathogens using metabarcoding. She is an Assistant Researcher, a position granted by the FCT in the sixth edition of the national CEEC Individual contest, to study mycobacteria in marine environments.

Her research focuses on genomics and the development of bioinformatics tools to enhance genetic analysis in microbial and human studies, often finding parallels between these fields. She has experience with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. marinum models, microbiology training at the Royal Hospital in Liverpool, and postdoctoral work on human evolution and bioinformatics at IPATIMUP, ICVS, and CBMA, emphasizing genomic analysis and mycobacterial diversity.

genomics, computational data analysis, environmental mycobacteria, microbial studies, marine environment metabarcoding.

Pedro M. Santos holds a Biochemist degree (University of Porto, 1997) and   completed the PhD in Biomedical Sciences at University of Porto (2002). He was a post-doctoral fellow at Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences, IST (2002-2007). He was an Invited Assistant Professor of the MIT-Portugal program (2007-08). He is an Assistant Professor at University of Minho, since 2008.

His research interests are focused on bacterial functional genomics, bacterial physiology and molecular biology, microbiomes and bioinformatics, particularly focused on biomonitoring-, bioprospection- and biotechnology-driven approaches.

Bacteria, functional genomics, biodiversity, evolution, bioinformatics workflows

Msc in Chemical Engineering at LTH, Faculty of Engineering in 1995, specializing in biotechnology. PhD at the department of Applied Microbiology, LTH under Prof Bärbel Hahn-Hägerdal. During the PhD I spent time in the laboratory of Prof Peter Ruhdal Jensen at DTU (Technical University of Denmark). Currently assistant Prof at the Department of Biology, University of Minho.

I focus on metabolic engieering of lipid metabolism in baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae ultimatily to create sustainable sources of specialized fatty acids. I am also interested in open science, specifically the creation and maintenance of complete and verifiable genetic design documents. I am the original creator of pydna, a Python package that enables simulation of cloning strategies.

lipids, molecular biology, yeast physiology, bioinformatics, Python, metabolic engineering

Filipe Costa graduated in Marine Biology (1992) and completed MSc in Marine Ecology (1997). His PhD was awarded in 2002 by Univ. Nova de Lisboa. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Texas Tech University, USA (2003) and at the Univ. of Guelph, Canada, between 2003 and 2005. He was also granted a Marie Curie Fellowship (Bangor University, UK, 2006-2007) and a Marie Curie Reintegration Grant in 2008 at the Univ. of Minho, where he is currently Associate Professor.

His research work involves the use of molecular markers for biodiversity research, in particular (e)DNA (meta)barcoding, to investigate marine biodiversity, ecology, and evolution, as well as the employment of DNA-based tools in marine monitoring, bioassessment and conservation. He represents Portugal, and CBMA-UMinho, in the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) consortium since 2009, and has been deeply involved in related initiatives (DNAqua-Net, eDNAqua-Plan, OBON).

DNA barcoding, eDNA, marine biodiversity, phylogeography, DNA reference libraries, biodiversity bioinformatics.

Isabel Soares Silva graduated in Applied Biology at Minho University and finished her Ph.D. in 2006 in the field of Yeast Molecular Biology. In her subsequent PostDoc, she specialized in the field of structure-function studies of permeases. She then joined the Nephrology R&D Unit (Faculty of Medicine, UPorto) as a research assistant and later the INEB/I3S (UPorto). Since October 2016, she has expanded her work in the field of carboxylate transporters at (CBMA) UMinho.

She is focused on understanding how transporter proteins regulate biological processes and the structure-function relationships that determine their specificity, affinity, and stability. She also aims to develop bio-based solutions by optimizing carboxylic acid transporters to enhance biorefinery efficiency, expand bio-based product ranges and promote a circular economy in industrial biotechnology.

carboxylic acids, metabolite transport, structure-function studies, protein engineering, microbial cell factories

Pedro Soares holds a Biology degree from the University of Porto. After a brief period at IPATIMUP (Porto), he joined a Marie-Curie PhD program at the University of Leeds (UK), followed by a British Academy Post-Doc. In 2010, he returned to IPATIMUP, and in 2014, he moved as an Assistant Researcher into CBMA (University of Minho). Since 2022, he is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department.

Research focuses on a) human evolution and tracing the history of human past migration and history; b) development and application of bioinformatics’ tools in the fields of Biodiversity and biotechnology.

evolution, phylogenetics, archaeogenetics, bioinformatics, anthropobiology, genomics