Ana Cristina Cardoso Freitas Lopes de Freitas PhD in Biotechnology by Universidadade Católica - Escola Superior de Biotecnologia (UCP/ESB) in 1999. Assistant professor at the Instituto Piaget/Viseu since 1999, where she continued to develop research in the food area (dairy products/functional foods). Since 2002 she is involved in several financed research projects and since 2011 to 2016 she was a research member of Center for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Universidade de Aveiro From November 2016, she is a Principal Researcher in UCP/ESB - Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina (CBQF). She has a large experience in higher education from 1992 and the supervision of post-graduate students compliments my scientific curriculum. She has published more than 94 papers indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge journals, 27 book chapters, 20 proceedings’ papers & has over 150 communications in scientific conferences. Editor of 1 book of International distribution by Pan Stanford Publisher’s invitation (CRS Press/Taylors & Francis Group). Reviewer in more than 40 peer Int. Sci. review journals with 195 verified reviews and top 1% reviewer in 2019 ans 2018 in two areas. Board member of three peer Int. Sci. review journals (Annals of Microbiology, Research International and Foods) and Guest Editor in several journals (Marine Drugs, Foods and Frontiers in Bioeng. & Biotechnol.) She has developed scientific activity in Food Science, Microbiology and Biotechnology focusing on: i) Characterization and improvement of dairy products with emphasis on the development and study of functional products: Probiotics and prebiotics; ii) Microencapsulation technology adapted for probiotic bacteria: production and improvement of stability and functionality in various sectors. ii) Research in areas that help to promote the sustainability of agro-food chain. iv) Novel functional foods - biotechnology applications, biological activity evaluation of functional ingredients; emphasis on functional foods with innovative bioactive ingredients from several biological sources. v) Valorization of marine resources via nutrients and bioactives characterization, green extraction technologies, biological activity evaluation and delivery vehicle (functional foods/supplements) formulation. iv) Production of isomers of conjugated fatty acids by microbial fermentation. Scientific activity also in the Applied Microbiology and Environmental Sciences fields, focusing on: i) Research on biological treatment of industrial effluents, with emphasis on effluent of pulp and olive oil mill wastewater. ii) Studies of biomarkers as indicators of changes in soil microbial communities in polluted soils. She has worked in these research fields in close collaboration with other national and international research groups as Principal Investigator or Participant investigator of research projects. She has been leader of 3 R&D project funded by FCT and researcher in 27 R&D projects funded by national entities (FCT, Cal. Gulbenkian Foundation, FCT/CNRST, Ciência Inovação 2010, Ciência Viva 6, AdI-POCTI,INTERREG Spain-Portugal; ADI, COMPETE, Portugal 2020, etc). She also participated as researcher in 1 International R&D project funded by NATO Science. . She intends to expand the horizon of functional food research into the clinical and nutritional field and to participate in science communication strategies towards dissemination of scientific results in the community.