Rúben Fernandes is an academic and researcher in the field of Biomedicine, specializing in cancer and metabolism research, nanomedicine, and infectious diseases. With a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Genetics, and Immunology from the University of Vigo, he has established himself as a leader in his field. He currently holds the position of Full Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Fundação Ensino e Cultura Fernando Pessoa (FFP). At FFP, he serves as the coordinator of the Biomedical and Health Sciences Center. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Clinical Studies at Hospital Escola Fernando Pessoa. Before his current position, He held the role of Adjunct Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto for nearly two decades. During his tenure, he established and led the Laboratory of Medical and Industrial Biotechnology (LaBMI), a renowned research unit focused on cancer, microbes, and viruses. Actively involved in funded research projects, he has participated in 8 projects in the past 5 years. He served as the Principal Investigator (PI) in 5 projects and as a co-PI in 2 others, focusing on areas such as aptamers for theranostics in prostate carcinoma, immune profiling of patients with SARS-CoV-2, and the optimization of COVID-19 diagnosis.
Ana Novo Barros is an Assistant Professor with Habilitation from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Portugal. She was the Director of the Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences (CITAB) for 5 years (May 2017–July 2022) and of the Institute for Innovation, Capacity Building and Sustainability of Agri-Food Production (Inov4Agro) for one and a half years (January 2021–July 2022). She is responsible for the Phytochemicals Laboratory, and Coordinator of the Agri-Food Quality Group. She is the coordinator of the European project WASTELESS. She also served as an international expert evaluator for Agência Nacional de Inovação. Her research targets are mainly in the identification, separation, and recovery of functional molecules from different natural products, as well as their implementation as ingredients and bioactive compounds in food, with an ultimate goal to extract high added-value molecules and re-use them in the food chain (from agriculture to the consumer).
