معرفی
Maria João Romão serves as Full Professor at NOVA University Lisbon's Faculty of Science and Technology, where she leads the XTAL Macromolecular Crystallography research laboratory and coordinates the Structural and Molecular Biology research group. Her work integrates structural biology techniques including X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, and small-angle X-ray scattering to investigate protein structure-function relationships with significant implications for drug development and environmental science.
Her research program focuses on mechanistic enzymology of metalloenzymes containing molybdenum, tungsten, and iron centers, particularly their roles in drug metabolism and CO2 reduction pathways. Key contributions include elucidating catalytic mechanisms of human aldehyde oxidase in pharmaceutical metabolism and structural characterization of tungsten-dependent formate dehydrogenases. She has pioneered novel protein crystallization methodologies using magnetic particles and microfluidic systems to overcome persistent challenges in structural biology.
Analysis of her publication record since 2016 reveals sustained focus on structural characterization of drug-metabolizing enzymes and redox-active metalloproteins, with increasing emphasis on biomedical applications. Her work bridges fundamental enzymology with pharmaceutical development, particularly in understanding aldehyde oxidase variants that impact drug efficacy and toxicity.
Professor Romão actively mentors four PhD students and has secured substantial research funding as Principal Investigator for the FCT-MCTES project 'Aldehyde oxidases in drug metabolism and biocatalysis' (€162,792) and as Co-Principal Investigator for multiple collaborative grants including 'Glycan-human microbiome interaction' (€176,405) and 'Advances in MUC1 Glycan Cancer Antigens' (€176,266), demonstrating her leadership in structurally driven biomedical research.
