Vera Valadas

Coming from a solid background and able to face any challenges, I´m a responsible, highly motivated and experienced scientist in molecular biology and biological sciences, with 12 years working on research focused on agricultural, forest and crop cultures related to organisms that affect beneficially or negatively the relevant ecosystems. During my research I worked with nematodes, insects, bacteria, plants and microalgae, developing a set of skills ranging from various methodologies related to DNA and RNA work, genomics, probe design, microbiology, metabolite extraction, cell line maintenance, nematode, fungi and bacteria cultivation, flow cytometry, microdissection, RT-PCR, time management and organization. I attended several courses, trainings, seminars that improved all my achieved skills. I made several internships in international laboratories to improve my technical capacities and collaborated with other international researchers from Germany, Ireland and Check Republic. Moved to United Kingdom from 2016-2020 to improve my English and personal capacity building. During 3.5 years working for Pharmaceutical industry where I developed a new set of capacities working in Grade A environment compounding medicines following SOP, GMP, Quality Events and CAPA. From August 2019 to February 2020 working as a Molecular Biology Scientist at Novogene Ltd, a world-renowned sequencing company. In March 2020, I returned to Portugal to integrate a new challenge at Global Health and Tropical Medicine research Centre, at the Institute for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, working as a Post- Doc Researcher in Vector Borne Diseases Group.

Personally, I consider myself a very dynamic person, capable of undertaking and carrying out all kind of tasks. I´m a highly motivated individual, who is very enthusiastic working with all kinds  of  different  people and I know I´m well capable to work as a team.

My academic career is strongly connected with research focused in agricultural, forest and crop cultures related to organisms that affect beneficially or negatively these ecosystems and more recently with organisms with public health concern.

From 2004-2015 I worked in a Portuguese University where I had roles as an individual researcher and in a group as well. Simultaneously, I was teacher assistant giving some classes to graduated students (degree and master) and trained national and international students and researchers. During that time, I worked with molecular techniques for species identification, genetic diversity analysis and dissemination routes. I focused on different organisms, nematodes, microalgae, plants, insects as well as fungi and bacteria.

Between 2016-2020 I lived in UK and worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry and latter in a Sequencing company. During this time I develop solid skill working on Grade A environments and in GMP and SOP. In the sequencing company I develop solid skills in library preparation for RNA and DNA.

From 2020-2022 I worked in VBD group again using different molecular markers and approaches for analysis of genetic diversity and dissemination routes of Aedes albopictus.

During my entire academic career, I attended several courses, trainings, seminars that improved all my achieved skills. I also present my research work in several national and international seminars and workshop. I made several internships in international laboratories to improve my skills and collaborate in research with other international researchers.

1. Pichler ^*, Caputo B.^*, Valadas V.^*, Micocci M., Horvath C., Virgillito C., Aim-Cost Network Members, Arbomonitor Project Members, Schaffner F., Pinto J., della Torre A. Geographic distribution of the V1016G Knockdown Resistance Mutation in Aedes albopictus: a warning bell for Europe. (submitted on 18th March to Parasite & Vectors: Ref: Submission ID 8444b4b1-ce43-4ed2-abcb-42f6533d584f).
2. Campos, D., Valadas, V., Campos, C., Morello, L., Braglia, L., Breviario, D., Cardoso, H.G. (2018). A TaqMan real-time PCR method based on alternative oxidase genes for detection of plant species in animal feed samples. PLOS One. (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190668).
3. Nogales§, A., Nobre§T., Valadas, V., Ragonezi, C., Döring, M, Polidoros, A. and Arnholdt-Schmitt, B. (2015). Can functional hologenomics aid tackling current challenges in plant breeding? Briefings on Functional Genomics. (doi:10.1093/bfgp/elv030).
4. *Valadas, , Laranjo, M., Barbosa, P., Espada, M., Mota, M. and Oliveira, S. (2012). The pinewood nematode, Bursaphelenchu sxylophilus, in Portugal: possible introductions and spread routes of a serious biological invasion revealed by molecular methods. Nematology14(8): 899-911. (doi:10.1163/156854112X632673).
5. *Valadas, , Laranjo, M., Mota, M. and Oliveira, S. (2014). A survey of entomopathogenic nematode species in continental Portugal. Journal of Helminthology 88(3): 327-41. (doi: 10.1017/S0022149X13000217).