Bio
Marisa Freitas (MF) completed her PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2010, in the Faculty of Pharmacy of University of Porto. Currently, she is Assistant Researcher at LAQV-REQUIMTE - Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry, working at the Laboratory of Applied Chemistry of Faculty of Pharmacy of University of Porto. Her research is dedicated to advancing methodologies for in vitro studies, with a particular focus on evaluating the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic properties of natural and synthetic compounds. MF scientific background is supported by 110 publications in international journals, presenting a h-index of 39, with about +19000 citations (Scopus). MF participated in several projects funded by national and international funds.

Bio
Paulo Matafome holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, 2012). He is a Physiology Professor at the Coimbra Health School, Polytechnic University of Coimbra. He is also an integrated member of CIBB (research center of the University of Coimbra). He has published 97 research articles and 4 book chapters. He currently is associate editor of several journals and Deputy Editor-in-chief of Diabetology. He has supervised or co-supervised 12 PhD students (5 concluded), 21 MSc students, and 22 BSc Students, coordinating and participating in several national and international research projects. He currently is one of the co-coordinators of the Project PAS GRAS funded (~9.5M Euros) by the Horizon program—Cluster Health. His interests rely on the pathophysiology of metabolic diseases, namely obesity and type 2 diabetes, disclosing the mechanisms governing adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity and leading to insulin resistance, including the transgenerational risks of obesity. He has also been interested in identifying molecular and imaging biomarkers of the metabolic and vascular complications of metabolic diseases, and in identifying therapeutic targets for obesity based on the neuroendocrine mechanisms that govern adipose tissue function. Moreover, he has been involved in research projects aiming to identify new nutritional and food-derived compounds able to modulate key pathways to improve oxidative stress and metabolic fitness, as well as aiming to disclose the impact of food processing and contaminants, namely added sugars and glycation products, on metabolic and vascular complications associated to metabolic diseases.

Bio
Alexandre Borbely earned his Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences (2006) from the University of Santo Amaro, Brazil. Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Cell and Developmental Biology (2009 and 2013), and post-doctorate (2015) from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. During his doctoral studies, he had sandwich training at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria (2011-2012), and he identified a proteoglycan involved in trophoblast invasion in the placenta, its mechanisms, and implications in gestational diseases. Since 2014, he has been an adjunct professor and research group leader at the Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil. He is a Brazilian representative of the Latin American Society for Maternal-Fetal Interaction and Placenta (SLIMP) and a member of the Iberoamerican Network for Vascular Alterations in Pregnancy Complications (RIVATREM). In the last 5 years, he authored and collaborated on 21 manuscripts, working mainly with placental Zika virus infection, microplastic contamination of human placentas, and natural products for pregnancy.

Bio
Maria Teresa Cruz (MT Cruz) holds a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences (1991) from the University of Lisbon, a master's in Drug Technologies (1996), and a PhD in Pharmacology (2004) at UC. She is associate professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Group Leader at the Centre for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology. MT Cruz has actively participated in numerous national and international funded projects, including those funded by the European Union 7th Framework Programme, John Hopkins, Cosmetics Europe, Lierac, and Vichy. She has contributed to 7 international patents and filed 4 provisional patent requests, authored 6 book chapters, and published 203 articles in SCI indexed journals. Included in the "World's Top 2% Scientists" concerning the most cited researchers in 2022, MT Cruz boasts an h-index of 39 with 7742 citations, as per the Web of Science. She has supervised or co-supervised 20 doctoral, 28 master and 3 post-doctoral students. MT Cruz regularly reviews R&D projects for various institutions, including Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, French National Research Agency, Alzheimer's Association Research Fellowship Program, ERA4Health, among others. In terms of knowledge transfer and valorization, MT Cruz has played a pivotal role in creating a spin-off from the UC, Toxfinder, which has received several entrepreneurship awards. MT Cruz contributed to the establishment of a Pilot Production Unit for Cell Therapy, the UpCells laboratory, resulting from a partnership between UC and a pharmaceutical industry, meeting all the requirements for the preparation and handling of cellular products for clinical application according to GMP. In terms of pedagogical activity, MT Cruz teaches various curricular units at the Faculty of Pharmacy and contributed to several master's and doctoral programs at the University of Coimbra and at the Institute of Biosciences - UNESP - Botucatu Campus