In the 4th edition of the Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus (CEEC) promoted by FCT, three researchers have been awarded with grants for the implementation of their projects during a six-year period at C2TN.
The research project granted to Susana Sousa Gomes has the goal to characterize the diachronic evolution of copper-based metallurgy in ancient societies of southern Portugal. Technological features and provenance of metallic artefacts will be related with archaeological and cultural contexts to identify endogenous factors and foreign influences that guided the metallurgical development from Chalcolithic to the Early Iron Age.
OPAir is the research project of Nuno Canha that targets to understand which main pollution sources are contributing to a higher health impact in Portugal, through a detailed characterization of fine aerosols, focusing on their variability, composition and potential impact on health by assessing their oxidative potential.
Sofia Gama’s research is dedicated to the fight against multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, specifically Bulkholderia cepacia, the leading cause of fatal “cepacia syndrome” in immunocompromised patients. The study focuses on the understanding of bacterial produced compounds (metallophores) and their role in bacterial metal acquisition and transport. Promising metallophore-metal systems will be explored as potential antibacterial agents and PET/SPECT radiotracers aiming the establishment of a sensitive and non-invasive diagnostic tool using molecular imaging metallophore based.