Mara Guadalupe Freire Martins

	Mara Guadalupe Freire Martins
	Research Coordinator

	phone: 234401422
	extension: 24922
	e-mail: maragfreire@ua.pt
	department: Chemistry
	office: 29.3.33

	group: 5 - biomedical and biomimetic materials
	line: 3 - sustainability and health
	direct url: http://www.ciceco.ua.pt/MaraFreire

Short CV

Mara G. Freire graduated in Chemistry in 2003 by University of Aveiro, Portugal, receiving the “Best Chemistry Student Award” from Dow Portugal. By the end of 2007 she completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering by University of Aveiro, having during her PhD studies trainees at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Claude Bernard University, Lyon, France, followed by post-doctoral activities at ITQB2, New University of Lisbon, Portugal. In 2012, Freire was an invited professor at Tiradentes University, Sergipe, Brazil. From June 2013 to January 2014, Freire was an Assistant Researcher at CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, Chemistry Department, University of Aveiro, Portugal, and since February 2014 she is a Coordinator Researcher at the same institution. Currently, Mara Freire is the Coordinator of Group 5 of CICECO, Biomedical and Biomimetic Materials, and member of the Cooperation and Scientific Dissemination Committee of the Chemistry Department at University of Aveiro. Since January 2017 she is member of the Young Scientists Seminar of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.

Since 2004, Freire published +190 papers in international peer reviewed journals, nine book chapters and edited one book, and has +9000 citations and h-index of 55. She has published in multidisciplinary journals, namely Chem. Rev., Chem. Soc. Rev., Angew. Chem., Phys. Chem. Lett., Adv. Sci., Sci. Rep., Green Chem., Chem. Eur. J., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., Biotechnol. Bioeng., Biotechnol. J., J. Chem. Tech. Biotech., among others. The scientific network of Freire is supported by publications with more than 150 distinct authors with the most diverse affiliations. Freire recurrently acts as a referee of several journals, as well as in international programmes for independent research careers and research projects. Freire participated in 22 R&D projects, currently being the principal investigator of a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

In addition to other awards and recognitions, Freire received the ECTP-NETZSCH Young Scientist Award in 2014, was recognized amongst the top 20 “Women in Science” in Portugal in 2016, was recognized as one of the 14 rising stars in the Green Chemistry field by the Green Chemistry journal in 2017, and was recognized in 2018 as one of the 100 women in Chemistry by the Royal Society of Chemistry in the themed collection “Celebrating excellence in research: 100 women of chemistry”.

The pedagogical capacity of Freire is supported by recurrent teaching activities of Physical Chemistry, Thermodynamics, and Alternative Solvents Technologies at University of Aveiro. She has completed the supervision of 11 post-doctoral researchers, and 9 PhD, 40 MSc and 33 BSc students, and is currently supervising 7 post-doctoral researchers, and 12 PhD and 5 MSc students.

Scientific Interests

Freire performs research in the following scientific domains: Biotechnology, Chemical Engineering/Bioengenering, Chemistry/Physical Chemistry and Health Sciences. Her research interests cover the following topics:

Development of cost-effective purification processes for value-added biopharmaceuticals

The production cost of high-quality biopharmaceuticals for large-scale applications still remains higher than other drug therapies due to the current lack of efficient purification strategies. To overcome this drawback, we are focused on the development of cost-effective purification processes for several value-added biopharmaceuticals, namely antibodies, recombinant proteins, and nucleic-acids-based products. Simultaneously to the development of separation processes, we are also working on the optimization of immunization protocols and on the biopharmaceuticals production.

Development of efficient pre-treatment techniques for biological samples envisaging early-stage diagnoses

The early detection of some diseases, including cancer, is pivotal and can increase their therapeutic success rate. Nowadays, there are some well-known biomarkers which are indicative of the presence of cancer or other diseases; yet, in most situations, their concentrations in human fluids, such as in urine and serum, are well below the detection limit of the currently used analytical equipment. To overcome these limitations, our research team is focused on the development of pre-treatment strategies for biological fluids (simultaneous purification and concentration approaches) to improve the detection and quantification of several diseases biomarkers.

Development of sustainable recovery processes for value-added compounds with therapeutic properties from biomass

The consumption of natural compounds with therapeutic features is highly advantageous compared to their synthetic counterparts (which usually lead to adverse effects). However, these products are typically extracted by volatile and often toxic solvents, and obtained with low yields and low purity levels. Trying to overcome these drawbacks, we have been investigating the use of aqueous solutions of ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents as alternative solvents for the selective extraction of target compounds, mainly with therapeutic features from biomass, as well as from biomass by-products and wastes. Attempts on integrated/biorefinery approaches, always bearing in mind the new challenges of the circular economy and the need to reduce and reuse waste and raw materials, are priority issues in this line of research. The cytotoxicity and biological activities of the extracted compounds also are usually appraised.

Synthesis and applications of ionic liquids as therapeutic drugs

Several therapeutic drugs exhibit low solubility in biological fluids, displaying thus low bioavailability, and sometimes requiring the use of vehicles for drug delivery which, in turn, may be toxic. To overcome these drawbacks, we are focused on the synthesis of novel ionic-liquid-based drugs with analgesic, anti-inflammatory and/or antioxidant activities for pharmaceutical and medical applications, and on the evaluation of their in vitro and in vivo toxicity and their neuroprotection capacity. These novel drugs display a high potential to prevent neurodegeneration-based conditions, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.