Margarida C.A. Castro is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Life Sciences,
Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Coimbra, and a Researcher at the
Coimbra Chemistry Centre, Biological Chemistry Group (CQC/UC), integrating also the
PTNMR network. Presently, she has more than 60 publications (SCOPUS ID 22974730900;
ORCID ID 0000-0001-6811-3878), being an active participant in several renowned international
and national conferences. Margarida Castro has been actively participating in several
funded R&D projects as PI and team member and has vast experience in the supervision
of under-graduated and post-graduated students and Post-Docs. Her research interests
have been centred mainly in two scientific areas: Inorganic Biochemistry and Biomedical
NMR. She has been dedicated to structural and biological studies of the interaction
of metal ions with relevant biomolecules and cells, to investigate their beneficial
and toxic effects. The design and structural characterization of inorganic compounds
as potential drugs for therapy and diagnostic/imaging have also been addressed, focusing
on their mechanisms of action at the molecular and cellular levels. She has also been
involved in the study of metabolic pathways and analysis of biological fluids and
tissues, both in normal and pathological (tumours) or stressful conditions. NMR techniques
have been important tools for in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo studies with cell and
animal models. Multinuclear 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy for structural characterization
and qualitative and quantitative analysis both in solution and in biopsies (HRMAS),
the use of 13C- and 2H-labelled substrates for metabolic studies, MRI/MRS for in vivo
studies, have greatly contributed to clarify the different scientific questions and
achieve the required objectives.
Main topics are: lithium and bipolar disorder, vanadium complexes as insulin-mimetic
agents, MRI contrast agents, cancer therapy and radiotheranostics.
KNOWLEDGE FIELDS: Inorganic Biochemistry; Inorganic Complexes for Therapy and Environment;
NMR and EPR spectroscopy // Feb 2022
