Cecília Roque, researcher at UCIBIO@REQUIMTE at NOVA's Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, was awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).
NOVA's researcher will receive a grant of around €1.5 million, for five years, to develop the proposals successfully put forward to the very challenging ERC review boards.
To develop tools for rapid identification of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, a global threat that is spreading at an alarming pace, is the challenge taken up by Ana Cecília Roque. Her approach is based on a new field in diagnostics, based on the detection of microbial volatile metabolites, using nose sensors. Her group recently discovered a new class of stimulus-responsive gels which show great potential to advance the field of odour detection. Ultimately, her research may lead to the quick identification of pathogenic bacteria, including those with acquired antimicrobial-resistances, with great impact on disease control.
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