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Dr. Ana Martins

Assistant Professor
Dept. Applied Biology, Univ. of Sharjah
 

Brief Biography:


I got my B.Sc. in Biochemistry (1994) and my Ph.D. in Biochemistry/ Enzymology (2000) from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. For my Ph.D. I was awarded a 4-year fellowship from the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT). After graduating I applied for and was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship also from FCT, to continue my studies and research in the USA. I joined Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech in 2002 and began working in the Biochemical Networks Modeling Group under the supervision of Dr. Pedro Mendes. In 2004 I was hired as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at VBI and in 2007 I became the lab manager of the Mendes' group. One year after Dr. Mendes moved to Manchester and I moved to Dr. Shulaev's Biochemical Profiling group also at VBI. In November 2008 I decided to join Brenda Winkel's group (Plant Multienzyme Systems) at the Dept.of Biological sciences, also at Virginia Tech. In 2010 my husband came to the American University of Sharjah in Sabatical and I got an assistant Professor position at the University of Sharjah (UoS), in the Dept. of Applied Biology. The Biotechnology program at UoS is a joint programme with the University of Sheffield (UK) and it is really promising! Inbetween the USA and the UAE I briefly worked as a Visiting Researcher at the Faculty of Pharmacy (Lisbon, Portugal) at the Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery Systems Group.
 

Academic positions:


Since Sept 2011 - Visiting assistant professor at the Applied Biology Dept, College of Sciences, University of Sharjah Oct – Dec 2010 - Visiting researcher at iMed.UL – Research Institute for Medicines and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon; Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery Systems group Nov. 2008 – May 2009 - Research scientist; Plant Multienzyme Systems Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech Jan. 2008 – July 2008 - Research associate – Yeast Systems Biologist; Biochemical Profiling Group, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech Feb. 2007 – Dec. 2007 - Research associate – Yeast Systems Biologist and Laboratory Manager; Biochemical Networks Modeling Group, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech Oct. 2004 – Feb. 2007 - Postdoctoral research associate - Yeast System Biologist; Biochemical Networks Modeling Group, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech Oct. 2002 – Sep. 2004 - Visiting postdoctoral associate; Biochemical Network Modeling Group, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech. Nov. 2000 – Dec. 2001 - Research assistant; Center of Studies of Biochemistry and Physiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon
 

Research interests:


My main research interests are in the areas of Protein Science/enzymology and Microbiology (I have been working with S. cerevisiae since 1993): - Biochemical networks modeling / Enzymology • kinetic characterization of enzymes of the pentose phosphate pathway to integrate in a bottom-up yeast model – initial rate studies and progress curve analysis • identification of gene function by high-throughput protein activity analysis • kinetic characterization of ureases of different Brucella strains - Structure and localization of the flavonoid multienzyme complex in Arabidopsis thaliana Building of constructs of CHS, CHI, FLS1 and DFR (enzymes from the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway in A. thaliana) fused to fluorescent proteins (mCherry, SYFP and SCFP) for in vivo studies of protein-protein interaction using FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer) Additionally I have a huge interest in Systems Biology, having worked in this area for several years while at VBI: - Genome-wide study of the oxidative stress response in S. cerevisiae Systems biology study of yeast responses to stress induced by hydroperoxides at the level of transcriptome, proteome and metabolome, in controlled growth conditions (fermentors) - Metabolomics • development of methods of metabolite extraction in S. cerevisiae and in human cancer cells • metabolite profiling of the yeast S. cerevisiae - Bioinformatics • extensive use of genomics, protein and proteome, metabolic pathways, enzyme and other scientific databases • sequence analysis of genes and proteins, biological analysis of gene expression and regulation
 

Any other information:


Please see attached CV.
 

What I think of the idea behind WebmedCentral:


Great! As a researcher and an author, I have been through the review process several times. In most cases I found this process to be slow and biased. The fact that authors can first publish and then get the comments is a plus for the scientific process itself. When receiving reviews several months after the paper submission, sometimes it is difficult to do additional experiments. With this speedy process it will be easy for authors to repeat experiments and/or do additional ones. Also, it is a great resource for connecting with peers and share scientific information. Congrats on the great idea!