Perfil
Hermínia de Lencastre is a distinguished Portuguese American geneticist known for her significant contributions to microbial genetics, particularly in the understanding of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in pathogenic bacteria. She received her degree in Biology from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in 1969 and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the School of Science and Technology of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. In 1989 she presented her “Provas de de Agregacao” at the School of Science and Technology of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. In 1989, as Associate Professor with “agregação” she was appointed Head of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory at ITQB, a function she maintains until the present date.
In 1990, Hermínia de Lencastre became a Senior Research Associate at The Rockefeller University in New York. In 1999, she was also appointed Professor at the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB NOVA) in Portugal.
Her research has mainly focused on the biochemistry and molecular biology of Gram-positive bacteria and phages, with an emphasis on antibiotic resistance mechanisms and the dissemination of resistance genes and clones. In particular, she has extensively studied methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. In 2017, her team at ITQB NOVA decoded a gene responsible for antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
Her excellence in microbiology has been recognized with several awards, including the Professor Nicolau van Uden Prize from the Portuguese Society of Microbiology in 2011. In 2016, she was honored in the “Women in Science” initiative of Ciência Viva. The Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education awarded her the Medal of Scientific Merit in 2018.
Hermínia de Lencastre is a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Society for Microbiology and the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Her work continues to influence the fields of microbial genetics and antibiotic resistance research.
