New Associate Professors at ITQB NOVA
ITQB NOVA PI’s Lígia O. Martins and Ricardo O. Louro have just become Associate Professors, after winning an international Open Call. Martins heads the Microbial & Enzyme Technology Lab and coordinates the B-LigZymes consortium, while Louro leads the Inorganic Biochemistry and NMR Lab, the CERMAX Magnetic Resonance Centre and co-coordinates the PhD Programme MolBioS.
Ligía O. Martins graduated in Biology from the University of Coimbra. She obtained her PhD in Biotechnology at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, in 1994, under the supervision of Isabel Sá-Correia. She then joined ITQB NOVA as a postdoc. In 2004, Ligía established her current group and was appointed Invited Assistant Professor.
Teaching is a big part of her work. The researcher is a member of the Scientific Committee of the PhD Program in Sustainable Chemistry and of the Master Course in Biotechnology for Sustainability. She is responsible for four curricular units and has supervised from high-school, Erasmus, MSc, PhD students, to postdocs.
The Laboratory of Microbial and Enzyme Technology uses a multidisciplinary approach that focuses on the discovery and biochemical characterization of new enzymes, the engineering for improved performance and robustness, and the design of bioprocesses for the valorisation of bio-wastes. Lígia has also coordinated six national research projects and is/was a team member of three EC-funded projects. Currently, she coordinates the B-Ligzymes consortium (a RISE-H2020 project) and is on the editorial board of three scientific journals.
She was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU; 2014-20), and of the Biocatalysis Board of the European Federation of Biotechnology (since 2020).
Ricardo O. Louro obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from ITQB NOVA under the guidance of António Xavier. He then pursued his career as a postdoc in the Universities of Stockholm and Leiden. In 2001, he returned to ITQB NOVA as an Assistant Researcher. Currently, Ricardo is the coordinator of CERMAX – the main centre of the Portuguese NMR Network – and an elected member of the institute’s Scientific Council.
Ricardo co-coordinates the MolBios PhD programme, has co-organized advanced courses in several European institutions, and currently holds teaching assignments in three master programmes. He has also supervised numerous postdoc, PhD and Masters research projects.
His current research as the leader of the Inorganic Biochemistry and NMR Lab focuses on the transfer of electrons and protons in biological systems. This research has contributed to the characterization of molecular mechanisms in bacteria capable of producing and consuming electricity, in iron-scavenging bacteria and to the development of NMR spectroscopy methods to support it.
Ricardo has been an elected member of the management committee of the International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology, and President of the Biosciences Scientific Committee of Santa Casa da Misericordia. In 2002, he was nominated a Burgen fellow by the Academia Europaea. He is also the editor of three books in his field.
