Raquel Amaral

Experiência

My expertise on microalgae and cyanobacteria spans over two-decades, with accumulated knowledge on fundamental topics of their cultivation, conservation, and on the biotechnological applications of biomass extracts, achieved through participation in several projects. I studied microalgal taxonomy during PhD research with strains from the Coimbra Collection (acoi.ci.uc.pt) and I travelled on scientific stays to the Czech Republic and to Germany and to international European collections (ccap.ac.uk, uni-goettingen.de/en/184982.html). After my PhD defense, in November 2020, I engaged as a post-doc in an European project at CIIMAR, University of Porto, host of cyanobacterial collection lege.ciimar.up.pt. In 2021, an intriguing position opened at the University of Coimbra, aiming to study microalgae as clean energy source, based on recent findings that the microalgal group of diatoms are electroactive. This outstanding new scientific domain of research with microalgae captivated my interest, and I joined as a postdoc researcher in project GREEN (greenproject.pt), which was granted by the European Research Council to the visionary PI and professor Dr. Paulo Rocha. The Bioelectronics and Bioenergy Research laboratory was implemented with state-of-the-art instrumentation and equipment. Over the past 4 years the frontiers of bioelectronics have expanded my scientific path with new routes of knowledge and expertise to the fields of bioelectronics and material science. I went on a scientific stay to the University of Bath, U.K. for consolidating skills on MEAs development and supervised undergraduate, Msc and PhD students in the areas of sensors development and fabrication, for effective cultivation of microorganisms (microalgae, cyanobacteria and bacteria) on conductive surfaces. Publications unfolded with my pivotal contribution in a total of 8, (with 3 others in publication phase), in the areas of biologically derived energy systems, environmental science and biotechnology. Along with my development as a bioelectronics specialist, I participated as a lecturer in a post-graduation course at the University of Coimbra. After defending my PhD I started searching for independent funding and already wrote proposals for funding from FCT (1 project, 1 exploratory and 2 CEEC), submitted 2 SEED projects (University of Coimbra funding) and despite not being funded, all received very good criticism. In 2025 I wrote and supported, as supervisor, the submission of a PhD project for a student in the cutting-edge area of biosensors to apply to microbial fuel cells technology and the student was awarded the scholarship. An additional line of work emerged in parallel to bioelectronics, in collaboration with a researcher of the University of Bath, U.K. My pivotal participation in the method development to monitor growth of microalgal cells in FEP microfluidic strips led to participation as a co-inventor of a patent (pending), and publications about monitoring growth of microalgae and cyanobacteria in microcapillary fluidic strips (doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2024.155480; doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2025.132125; doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.181217). Since I started working with microalgae, when it was not a popular topic, I envisioned that microalgae are the microscopic botanic source of many unsolved problems of mankind. The term “microalgae” is now a household word which became known for good reasons, such as their good nutritious, medical and cosmetical properties but also due to concerning events, seen in the news as large stains of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in oceans and rivers often called red tides. Due to climate change effects, HABs cause severe damage to humans and animals around the globe. The expertise I have gained in signaling detection in microalgae and in microfluidics are unique means to research further this phenomenon to create the fundamental knowledge for enabling the development of early detection tools.