Maria Rosário Bronze

Maria Rosário Bronze has been working in Analytical Chemistry since 1986. Her Ph.D. in 1999 contributed to the study of food products using capillary electrophoresis. The main goal of her research since 1999 has been focused on Analytical Chemistry applied mainly to the analysis of foods and by-products of food industry. She conducted research in collaboration with national and international research groups, at iBET and ITQB Technology Division. From 2017 until 2021 she was head of Food & Health Division at iBET and head of the Food Functionality and Bioactives Laboratory. MR Bronze has been an Associate Professor at the Pharmacy Faculty of Lisbon University and head of the Structural Analysis Laboratory since 2012. As a researcher, MR Bronze is a Senior Scientific Advisor at Food & Health Division at iBET and Head of Food Functionality and Bioactives Laboratory at the same Institute, Collaborator at iMED and Researcher at ITQB NOVA. Her current research is focused on quality and beneficial health effects of food components. Gas and liquid chromatography associated with mass spectrometry are used by MR Bronze in the characterization of samples. Sensory evaluation is also an important area of her research. The main food products studied by her are olive tree products (olive, olive oil, leaves), cereals such as maize, legumes (faba bean, pea, chickpea, lentils) fruits (apple, grapes, opuntia ficus), fruit juices and wine, among others. More recently her interests have also involved biodiversity, bioaccessibility, and bioavailability studies on food products and their components, mainly phytochemicals as phenolic compounds, using different analytical tools such as mass spectrometry. As a senior scientific advisor at Food & Health Division at iBET she is involved in different areas: (i) isolation, characterization and formulation of bioactive and functional compounds or extracts from natural sources and wastes from food and other related industries; (ii) pre-clinical assays to provide support to understand health claims related with the beneficial effects of food nutrients/bioactive components; (iii) establishment of analytical methodologies including mass spectrometry state-of-the-art to fully characterize different matrices, from food products, natural extracts or biological fluids (Food Functionality and Bioactives Laboratory).