Professional activity report (to obtain the master degree in Biological Engineering)

Palma, Tânia

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/3653

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Authors

Palma, Tânia

Advisor(s)

Romano, Anabela

Costa, Maria Clara

Abstract(s)

After completing my degree in Biotechnological Engineering, I did a professional training of 6 months in the enterprise Progenus S.A. (Gembloux – Belgium) financed under the Leonardo da Vinci Program and during two years and two and half months I was research fellow in the research project FCT: PTDC/AGR-AAM/102664/2008 with the title "Is Plantago almogravensis an aluminium hyperaccumulator? Elucidation of the tolerance mechanism using micropropagated plants" under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Anabela Romano. Currently, I am working in environmental remediation for metal removal and/or recovery using chemical and biological approaches, under the coordination of Prof. Dr. Maria Clara Costa – Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve. In Progenus S.A. my work consisted at genotyping and in the identification of SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) of interest and of major genes affecting the regulation, composition and percentage of fatty acids (FA) and of mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) in the milk cows. The results presented are part of my traineeship report. As research fellow, in the project FCT: PTDC/AGR-AAM/102664/2008, my work was based in the use of micropropagation techniques as well as subsequent assays to assess aluminium (Al) tolerance of Plantago almogravensis and P. algarbiensis that are two critically endangered plantain species. From this professional activity resulted three publications of papers in international journals with referees index (ISI) and the exposure of a poster at an international conference. Actually, I am working in the Environmental Technologies laboratory in bioremediation studies. This work includes enrichment of anaerobic bacteria communities from environmental samples and screening of their resistance and ability to recover palladium(II) from aqueous media. Simultaneously, other study is in course, which consists on the synthesis of metal sulphide nanoparticles using sulphide generated by sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB). The obtained nanoparticles are being applied in the degradation of emerging pollutants.