Mariana M. Moutinho

Mariana M. Moutinho is a biologist with a strong background in microbiology, bioprocess and analytical chemistry. During her bachelor’s degree in Biology, she gained experience with bacterial consortia development for pharmaceutical remediation and molecular biology techniques for microbial identification. She then completed her master’s in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology, focusing on culturing strategies for improved production of cyanobacterial anti-obesity metabolites, acquiring skills in photobioreactor technologies and activity-guided metabolomics.

After a short industry experience as a molecular biology technician for COVID19 PCR diagnosis, she joined the BlueBio4Future European ERAChair as a research assistant in Biomass/Bioprocess. Here, she worked in bioprocess optimization, focusing on extraction methodologies and culture conditions, of several cyanobacterial target metabolites, with a particular focus on method development in analytical chemistry (HPLC and LC/MS), design of experiments (DoE) for nutrient availability, and green chemistry. This position allowed her to collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of synthetic biologists, chemists, bioprocess and metabolic engineers, as well as to participate in international congresses and research papers.

As Doctoral Candidate 11 in the NEUTEN project, Mariana’s current research at Aarhus University focuses on the development of pre-treatment strategies in Anaerobic Digestion (AD) for improved removal of emerging contaminants and biogas production.