PhD in Chemistry from the University of Coimbra, she developed her thesis in the field of epoxidation catalyzed by metalloporphyrins. She carried out postdoctoral research at the Universities of Liverpool and Aut\u00f3noma de Barcelona, focusing on organic synthesis and homogeneous catalysis. She is Full Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC), where she joined the Board of the Coimbra Chemistry Centre (CQC) and is member of scientific committee of the Department of Chemistry, and the scientific councils of FCTUC and ICNAS. She coordinates the Catalysis & Fine Chemistry group, integrated in the Medicinal Chemistry line of the CQC. Her research focuses on the development of catalysts for the valorization of natural products via carbonylation, synthesis of new chemical entities with therapeutic applications, such as photodynamic therapy of cancer, photoinactivation of microorganisms and medical imaging, as well as for environmental remediation. She is author of numerous scientific articles, several international patents, and co-founder of the spin-off Luzitin, where she was responsible for the development of redaporfin, a photosensitizer in phase I\/II clinical trials. Her research has been recognized with distinctions such as the Inventa Award 2011 (Best Health Patent and Patent of the Decade), the Tremplin Mariano Gago (2022), the title of Distinguished Researcher from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2022), and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of P\u00e9cs, Hungary (2023). She is currently a corresponding member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. In teaching, she has supervised a significant number of master\u2019s and doctoral theses and contributed to the creation of inter-institutional doctoral programmes. She is also actively involved in science outreach, coordinating several Ci\u00eancia Viva projects and developing educational materials that highlight the fundamental role of Chemistry in improving quality of life and planet\u00b4s sustainability.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PhD in Chemistry from the University of Coimbra, she developed her thesis in the field of epoxidation catalyzed by metalloporphyrins. She carried out postdoctoral research at the Universities of Liverpool and Aut\u00f3noma de Barcelona, focusing on organic synthesis and homogeneous catalysis. She is Full Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Sciences […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":25180,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"date":["2025-06-17"],"email":"mmpereira@qui.uc.pt","show_email":true,"interest":"Cat\u00e1lise; carbonila\u00e7\u00e3o; porfirinas; terapia fotodinamica; remedia\u00e7\u00e3o ambiental.","interest_en":"Catalysis; carbonylation; porphyrins; photodynamic therapy; environmental remediation.","hyperlink":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4958-7677 https:\/\/www.catalysisfinechemistry.com\/","footnotes":""},"ac_class":[119],"ac_bond":[121],"ac_section":[127],"class_list":["post-25179","ac_scholars","type-ac_scholars","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ac_class-classe-de-ciencias","ac_bond-correspondentes-nacionais","ac_section-3-seccao-quimica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac_scholars\/25179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac_scholars"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ac_scholars"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac_scholars\/25179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25181,"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac_scholars\/25179\/revisions\/25181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ac_class","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac_class?post=25179"},{"taxonomy":"ac_bond","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac_bond?post=25179"},{"taxonomy":"ac_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acad-ciencias.pt\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac_section?post=25179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}