María Isabel
Medina Méndez
Professional Category: Full Professor CSIC
Academic History: PhD Chemistry
CSIC Scientific Areas: Food Science and Technology
LINES OF RESEARCH
1. Analysis and characterization of fishery and aquaculture products:
- Nutritional and chemical characterization of new species, processed products and discards
- Advanced chromatography and mass spectrometry analysis
2. Quality of fishery and aquaculture products:
- Chemistry of seafood components and mechanisms of their modifications during conservation and processing. Aroma Chemistry
- Design of diets in aquaculture for greater performance, nutritional value and stability of the final product
- Establishment of quality and origin biomarkers
3. Bioactivity of constituents of marine origin such as Omega 3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and other components:
- Mechanisms of healthy action. Lipidomic, Metabolomic and Proteomic tools. Cell and Animal models. Biomarkers.
- Development of functional and nutraceutical ingredients
Free CV summary/biography:
Dr. Isabel Medina (Ph.D, Chemistry), is Full Professor at CSIC. She works in the group of Seafood Chemistry at IIM-CSIC in Vigo. PhD in Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1994, she completed her doctoral thesis at IIM-CSIC in the field of chemistry of seafood and fishery products lipids. She completed her training with pre and postdoctoral stays at the Universities of Davis, CA, EEUU, Naples, IT, and Guilford, U.K. She has a wide experience in chemistry and food analysis, particularly in marine lipids and omega-3 fatty acids, and its oxidation products. This experience has been applied to different aspects related to the quality, safety and nutritional value of fishery and aquaculture products. Ten years ago, she started a research line within her research group focused on the bioactive and healthy role of fish and seafood components, highly supported nowadays from the group background on lipidomic and proteomic analytical tools. Jointly with Prof. Judith Storch from the University of Rutgers, USA and with Prof. Óscar Ces and Robert Law from Imperial College, London, carries out at present research on the intestinal absorption of the lipids of marine origin and the modifications in cell membranes.
She has participated uninterruptedly in research projects at the National, European and Bilateral level, as well as in private contracts with the industry since the beginning of her research career. She has been the Principal Investigator in more than 40 national and international research projects and contracts with the private sector. She has published more than 135 peer reviewer papers with an h index of 35 and is author of 8 patents, 5 of them transferred to the industry. She has directed doctoral theses in Spain and abroad.
She has been on charge of different institutional and national research responsibilities as the National Coordinator of the Food Science and Technology Area of CSIC and part of the coordination team of the Area of Technology Transfer, Sub-areas of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, in the National Agency for Evaluation and Prospective, ANEP. She was Vice-president of the SEAFOODPLUS Research Platform, International Platform on Fisheries and Aquaculture Products and she is member of the Doctorate School of the University of Florence. In 2016, she received the First Prize of the Royal Galician Academy of Sciences.