Main research interests have been in the area of Environmental/Industrial BioEngineering, with special focus on the development of sustainable bioprocesses for the removal of pollutants from water and wastewater streams and for the exploitation of industrial wastes for the production of biopolymers and bulk chemicals.
Within this research area, published more than 200 papers in scientific journals with peer review. She is the co-author of 18 Book Chapters. Presented more than 200 oral presentations in International conferences. Is co-author of 4 National patents and 6 International patents. Coordinated 20 national and international projects (team leader), out of which 12 European Projects and 6 were co-funded by industrial companies, and participated as team member in 22 research projects. Co-supervised 20 PhD students and is currently co-supervisor of 11PhD students. Her scientific work has been distinguished with several awards and she was the winner of the Solvay & Hovione Ideas Challenge SHIC’08 Prize- Solvay prize in 2008. Nominated and Elected to the Portuguese Academy of Engineering in 2009 and Elected as IWA Fellow, September 2010. She is Editor of the Water Research (Elsevier).
Representative Publications:
1. XIAOFEI WANG, ADRIAN OEHMEN, ELISABETE B. FREITAS, GILDA CARVALHO, MARIA A.M. REIS (2017) .The link of feast-phase dissolved oxygen (DO) with substrate competition and microbial selection in PHA production. Water Research, 112,269–278, doi:10.1016/j.watres.2017.01.064
2. CATARINA S.S. OLIVEIRA, , CARLOS E. SILVA, GILDA CARVALHO, MARIA A. REIS (2017), Strategies for efficiently selecting PHA producing mixed microbial cultures using complex feedstocks: Feast and famine regime and uncoupled carbon and nitrogen availabilities. New Biotechnology, Volume 37, Part A, 2017, Pages 69–79, doi:10.1016/j.nbt.2016.10.008
3. FARINHA I, FREITAS F, REIS MAM (2017) Implementation of a repeated fed-batch process for the production of chitin-glucan complex by Komagataella pastoris. New Biotechnol 37, 123–128 (doi: 10.1016/j.nbt.2016.06.1460)
4. ANTUNES S, FREITAS F, SEVRIN C, GRANDFILS C, REIS MAM (2017) Production of FucoPol by Enterobacter A47 using waste tomato paste by-product as sole carbon source. Biores Technol 227, 66–73 (doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.12.018)
5. CRUZ MV, FREITAS F, PAIVA A, MANO F, DIONÍSIO M, RAMOS AM, REIS MAM (2016) Valorisation of fatty acids-containing wastes and byproducts into short- and medium-chain length polyhydroxyalkanoates. New biotechnol 33(1), 206–215 (DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2015.05.005)
6. CARVALHEIRA, M., OEHMEN, A. , CARVALHO, G., REIS, M.A.M. (2014) The effect of substrate competition on the metabolism of polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs). Water Research, Volume 64, 1, 149-159.
7. FRADINHO, J.C., OEHMEN, A., REIS, M.A.M. (2014) Photosynthetic mixed culture polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production from individual and mixed volatile fatty acids (VFAs): Substrate preferences and co-substrate uptake. Journal of Biotechnolgy, Vol. 185, Pages 19-27.
On-going EU Projects:
- H2020-WATER-2015-two-stage - 689785 (SALTGAE) Demonstration project to prove the techno-economic feasibility of using algae to treat saline wastewater from the food industry.
- H2020-IND-CE-2016 –proposal number : 730349 (RES-URBIS) REsources from URban BIo-waSte
- H2020- WATER-2015-two-stage - 690323 (SMART-Plant) Scale-up of low-carbon footprint material recovery techniques in existing wastewater treatment plants.
- H2020-WATER1b-2015- 689242 (INCOVER) Innovative eco-technologies for resource recovery from wastewater”
- H2020-WASTE-2015-two-stage - 688338 (NoAW) Innovative approaches to turn agricultural waste into ecological and economic assets.
- WaterJPI/0007/2014 (Watintech) Smart decentralized water management through a dynamic integration of technologies
- H2020-BBI-JTI-2016-745737 (AFTERLIFE) Advanced Filtration TEchnologies for the Recovery and Later conversIon of relevant Fractions from wastEwater.
- FP7 European Marie Curie ITN project (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN-607492): (Mermaid) Microbial Resource Management and Engineering solutions for the Urban Water Cycle)