PATRICIA ALEXANDRA BATISTA BRANCO

Patrícia Branco obtained a European PhD in Food Engineering in 2018 from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, University of Lisbon, in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen. She holds an MSc in molecular biology from Egas Moniz Higher School of Health (2011) and a BSc in biotechnology engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Lusófona University (2008). Her research focuses on microbiology, biotechnology and food science, with particular emphasis on antimicrobial peptides produced by microorganisms, their biochemical and molecular characterisation, mechanisms of action, and applications in food preservation, fermentation and sustainable biocontrol. She has also contributed to the development of eco-friendly biocides and molecular tools for microbial detection in complex matrices. Patrícia Branco has published 23 articles in Scopus-indexed journals, presented her work at national and international conferences, organised scientific events, supervised undergraduate students in biotechnology and biology, and served on academic thesis committees. She also received a scientific award from the International Union of Microbiological Societies for the best research paper. Since 2022, she has served as Guest Editor for the journal Antibiotics. She participated as a postdoctoral researcher in several research projects and coordinated the ART-BIOCIDES project at the HERCULES Laboratory, University of Évora, as well as the BIO-PHYTOFABs project at LEAF, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, University of Lisbon. She is currently an assistant professor at Lusófona University, coordinator of the Bioengineering and Sustainability Research Group (BioRG), and co-director of the MSc in Food and Molecular Biotechnology at the Faculty of Engineering, Lusófona University. She is also a researcher at LEAF, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, University of Lisbon. Her work lies at the interface of microbiology and biotechnology, contributing to food safety, microbial ecology and the development of sustainable biotechnological solutions.