Biography

Dr. Francisca Isabel Bravo Vázquez holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the ‘Universidad de Extremadura’, and a PhD in Food Science and Technology from the ‘Universidad Autónoma de Madrid’. In September of 2019, she got a position of Serra Húnter Tenure at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology in the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). In addition, she is a researcher in the consolidated Nutrigenomics research group. Her scientific career has been developed in different national and international research centers, such as the 'Instituto de Fermentaciones Industriales' (IFI, CSIC), 'Instituto de Ciencias de la Alimentación' (CIAL, CSIC-UAM), ‘Centre Tecnològic de Nutrició i Salut’ (CTNS), 'Universidad Complutense de Madrid' or APC Microbiome Ireland (University College Cork).

During her master and doctoral theses (IFI and CIAL, respectively), she got a great knowledge of protein structure and how their physico-chemical and biological functionalities can be changed using high hydrostatic pressures. Currently, her main research line focuses on the development of new functional ingredients based mainly on bioactive polyphenolic extracts and peptides, able to prevent / treat / mitigate several diseases associated with metabolic syndrome, such as hypertension or obesity. In fact, she has stablished and runs a screening platform for the development and validation of these functional ingredients. Some of the steps of this platform are the characterization and evaluation of possible raw materials, the obtainment of ingredients, the evaluation of biological activities (in vitro and in vivo), the identification of the compounds responsible for the bioactivities (peptides or polyphenols), and the study of the underlying mechanisms of action. Moreover, she also works in chrononutrition, evaluating the changes in the functional ingredients effectiveness or bioavailability depending on seasonal and circadian rhythms.

Dr. Bravo has participated in 11 competitive projects, in 3 of which she has been the principal investigator (PI). In addition, she has also had an active role in transferring scientific knowledge to the industry. She has participated in 15 contracts with companies in the agro-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors, being PI in 5 of them. Result of this work has been the development of 4 functional ingredients, which have been already patented. Moreover, Dr. Bravo has an h-index of 9 and has published 28 peer-review publications with over 220 citations and 2 book chapters.