Postdoctoral Fellow
Building 2 (Desert side), Level 4, 4288-WS06
Originally from Brazil, Barbara graduated with a BSc in Food Engineering in his hometown from the Federal University of Rio Grande - FURG. Barbara also graduated with A MSc and Ph.D. in Food Engineering and Science from the Graduate Food Engineering and Science Program from FURG. During her BSc, she started to work with microalgae technology at the Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, at that point focusing on the development of foods for special dietary purposes added of Spirulina. After this, during her postgraduate studies, she worked during her MSc on the effects of the use of pentoses in microalgae cultivation. Barbara’s Ph.D. dissertation was focused on continuing her master's degree focused on the metabolic effects of pentoses in Chlorella minutissima and Chlamydomonas reinhardtti. She underwent an internationalization period at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia of the Universidade de Lisboa (ULisboa). Also, during this period, she had the opportunity to develop part of her work at the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB), Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
After finishing her Ph.D., Barbara pursued postdoctoral activities at the Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, acting in Research and Extension Projects, working with the study of Brazilian agrobiodiversity and society valorisation, as well as the continuity of microalgae biotechnology studies on pentoses as a carbon source and their effects on the growth, metabolism, and production of polyhydroxybutyrate in microalgae. Barbara also realized Research activities, such as Postdoctoral research, at the Algae Biotechnology and Bioenergy Group, Germany, in the scope of the cooperation project between Brazil (CAPES) and Germany (DAAD). Barbara also has experience in food agrobiodiversity from the Amazonian and Cerrado biomes, as she cooperated before coming to KAUST with the Laboratory of Kinetics and Process Modeling from the Federal University of Tocantins, Brazil.
Since 2022, Barbara has been a postdoctoral fellow in the Sustainable & Synthetic Biotechnology Group at KAUST under Professor Kyle Lauersen's supervision.
Her current research aims to isolate, cultivate, characterize and generate a living library of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia algae species which can be grown in salt water, or waste-water, for various applications.
Costa, J. A. V., Freitas, B.C.B., Lisboa, C. R., SANTOS, T. D., Brusch, L. R. F., Morais, M. G., 2019. Microalgal biorefinery from CO2 and the effects under the Blue Economy. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, v. 99, p. 58-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.08.009
Cassuriaga, A. P. A., Freitas, B.C.B., Morais, M. G., Costa, J.A.V., 2018. Innovative polyhydroxybutyrate production by Chlorella fusca grown with pentoses. Bioresource Technology, v. 265, p. 456-463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2018.06.026
Freitas, B.C.B., Morais, M.G., Costa, J.A.V., 2017. Chlorella minutissima cultivation with CO2 and pentoses: Effects on kinetic and nutritional parameters. Bioresource Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2017.07.125
Freitas, B.C.B., Esquível, M.G., Matos, R.G., Arraiano, C.M., Morais, M.G., Costa, J.A. V., 2016. Nitrogen balancing and xylose addition enhances growth capacity and protein content in Chlorella minutissima cultures. Bioresource Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.06.059
Miranda, P. H. S., Santos, A. C., Freitas, B.C.B., Martins, G. A. S., Vilas Boas, E. V. B., Damiani, C., 2021. A scientific approach to extraction methods and stability of pigments from Amazonian fruits. Trends in Food Science & Technology, v. 113, p. 335-345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2021.04.047