Maria Emília da Silva Pereira de Sousa

Maria Emília da Silva Pereira de Sousa is a young researcher (44 years) at the Research Center CIIMAR and assistant professor of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto.

She obtained her degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Porto in 1997 and PhD in Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry from the same university in 2003, in the synthesis of chiral xanthones with antitumor activity. She held two post-doctoral stages within the project 083/02 Grices / Capes at the Federal University of São Carlos, SP, Brazil in August 2004 and February 2006.

The area of scientific activity is centered on Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry in particular, in the structure-based design and synthesis of potential drug candidates based on plant and marine natural product leads such as xanthones, flavonoids and other polyphenols, in studies of structure-activity relationships and preclinical/preformulation studies. Current research interests include: design and synthesis of P-glycoprotein modulators; design and synthesis of modulators of p53/negative regulators interaction; synthesis of anticancer drugs metabolites.

Other current activities include Member of the Scientific Board of the Master in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, FFUP; Member of International Doctoral Programme BiotechHealth Staff, UP (FCT PD-F 2012); Member of the editorial board Molecules (MDPI), Pharmaceuticals (MDPI), American Journal Pharmaceutical Sciences & Nanotechnology (Columbia International Publicating, USA); Reviewer of several Pharmaceutical Sciences scientific journals; Evaluation of international research projects.

Experience as scientific adviser: to date, she concluded the co/supervision of 2 posdoc, 4 PhD student, 8 Masters, 3 student ERASMUS, 9 research fellows. Currently, she is co/supervising, 3 PhD and 5 master students, and several undergraduate students.

She is (co-)author of 1 international and 2 national patents, 1 book, 5 book chapters, 68 papers in international scientific periodicals with referees and 2 paper in national, 47 abstracts international circulation / national refereed scientific, 64 oral communications (18 invited) and 176 posters in conferences in the field of Medicinal Chemistry.