INVITED SPEAKERS
Prof. Maria Paula Marques
Maria Paula Marques, FRSC, PhD in Biochemistry (Bioinorganic Chemistry) by the University of Coimbra, has been a member of the R&D Group “Molecular Physical-Chemistry” since 1995 and is an auxilliary professor (with habilitation) at the Department of Life Sciences of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra.
She is a researcher in the field of Vibrational Spectroscopy applied to Medicinal Chemistry – development of new Pt- and Pd-based chemotherapeutic drugs and chemopreventive agents (dietary antioxidants). The main techniques used are vibrational spectroscopy (Raman, FTIR and neutron scattering), including microRaman and microFTIR and synchrotron-based FTIR. These are coupled with theoretical calculations and cellular biology assays. She has an extensive scientific networking, namely with international laboratories such as the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source and the Diamond Light Source (Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK), the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (UK) and the Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland). She is presently the principal investigator of the R&D Project BioIMPACT/Biochemical Impact of Platinum and Palladium-based Anticancer Agents funded by the portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.
She teaches subjects from Spectroscopy, Biochemistry and Drug Design for the graduation courses in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology and Biomedical Engineering, as well as for the Masters courses in Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology, and Biomedical Research, and the PhD Programs MedChemTrain and CATSUS.
M.P.M. Marques is enrolled in CLIRSPEC – The International Society for Clinical Spectroscopy, Clinical Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy for Medical Diagnosis, and is a national delegate and a member of the Scientific Committee of the COST Action Raman4Clinics – Raman-based Applications for Clinical Diagnostics (COST-BM1401 da European Science Foundation). She belongs to the Scientific Committees of the European Conference on the Spectroscopy of Biological Molecules (ECSBM) and of the Iberic Congress on Spectroscopy (CIE), as well as to the Advisory Board of the Graduate School of Analytical Sciences Adlershof (SALSA, Humboldt University-Berlim, Germany). She is a member of the Portuguese Societies of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).
She is part of the editorial board of RSC Advances (Royal Society of Chemistry), Recent Patents on Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery (Bentham Science) e Letters in Drug Design and Discovery.