Sara Silva is, nowadays, a Researcher at Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina (CBQF), throughout her academic career, from its early stages up to now, she has been involved in the conceptualization, plan and execution of an array of different projects, most with industrial partners, focusing on exploiting the intrinsic value of low-value (by)products, with varying compositions, towards the development of green biotechnology-based solutions for the biomedical, cosmeceutical and nutraceutical industries. This strong industrial connection reflects itself in the participation in 7 industrial R&D projects as well as an additional 4 of a more fundamental nature. Analysis of her CV shows that her research efforts followed three main topics: i) Valorisation of agro-food byproducts in a circular economy context through the exploitation of the biological potential of their constituents; ii) characterization of extracted compounds¿ biological potential targeting desirable properties such cellular metabolism, immune and gut microbiota modulation modulation; iii) designing of delivery and formulation solutions for the usage and delivery of bioactive compounds. Author of 65 international peer-reviewed papers (63% Q1; 35% Q2) and 7 book chapters. According to Scopus (May 2023) she has been cited 1844 times by 1599 papers which resulted in an h-index of 22. Her main publication areas are Agricultural and Biological Sciences followed by Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular biology. She participated in 37 international conferences and contributed to ~30 oral and 47 poster presentations and has been Invited to be a reviewer of works for the 5th International Conference on Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology (ABB 2022) that will be held in China. She has also been Guest Editor 3 special issues of Foods (ISSN: 2304-8158; Q1 in Food and Plant Science) and 1 of Molecules (ISSN: 1420-3049; Q1 in Pharmaceutical Science) and Invited Evaluator for the National Research Funding Competition of FONDECYT (Chile, 2019). She has been involved in the co-supervision of 2 PhD students (1 Alchemy, 1 FCT SFRH/BD/149347/2019), 2 MSc students (1 backed by an industrial partner from the UK, ANEID), and 11students doing their BSc final projects while also being the co-supervisor of an array of international mobility training periods, namely 2 postdoctoral researchers (IACUBUS scholarship - Spain), 4 PhD students (2 IACUBUS scholarship - Spain; 1 CoNaCyt - Mexico; 1 SANDWICH - Brazil) and 1 MSc (Beca de Mobilidad Mixta de CoNaCyt - Mexico) as well as the supervision of 3 BSc volunteer researchers and numerous tutoring periods for visiting researchers and students. He has been awarded by FCT with a travel grant in 2011 and due to the high quality of his scientific work, by Frulact SA for the merit of her MSc thesis and, in 2021 and 2022 she has been awarded the CBQF annual incentive for extraordinary outputs in 2021 and 2020, respectively (1st and 2nd Editions) by Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina. Her experience and contributions to the expansion of the body of knowledge linked to bioactives extraction/characterization and resulted in the invitation to be a lecturer in the functional foods module of an ERASMUS+ program. She has also collaborated in scientific outreach activities as an organizing committee member of the 1st & 2nd Iberian Acorn Conference (speaker in the 1st) and as a speaker in the 1st National Marathon of Circular Economy Projects. In the last 5 years she as been a pro-bono scientific advisor in the development of cosmeceutical and nutraceutical solutions using plant extracts which has resulted in the Gluck Neem cream line.
Areas of research
Food Science Immunology and Microbiology Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical SciencePublications:
Machado, M.
Costa, E.
Silva, S.
Rodríguez-Alcalá, L.
Gomes, A.
Pintado, M.
(2023)
, Understanding the anti-obesity potential of an avocado oil-rich cheese through an in vitro co-culture intestine cell model
, Molecules - 15.
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Costa, E.
Silva, S.
Ribeiro, A.
Pereira, C.
Ferreira, C.
Bastos, F.
Pintado, M.
Carvalho, A.
Ramos, O.
(2023)
, Spent yeast waste streams as a sustainable source of bioactive peptides for skin applications
, International Journal of Molecular Sciences - 3.
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Silva, S.
Costa, E.
Machado, M.
Morais, R.
Pintado, M.
(2023)
, Selective activity of an anthocyanin-rich, purified blueberry extract upon pathogenic and probiotic bacteria
, Foods - 4.
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Oliveira, A.
Carvalho, M.
Carvalho, N.
Costa, E.
Silva, S.
Pintado, M.
Madureira, A.
(2023)
, Production of sustainable postbiotics from sugarcane straw for potential food applications
, Applied Sciences - 6.
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Coelho, M.
Costa, C.
Silva, S.
Pintado, M.
(2023)
, Modulation of the gut microbiota by tomato flours obtained after conventional and ohmic heating extraction and its prebiotic properties
, Foods - 9.
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