Maria de São José Garcia Alexandre Nascimento da Fonseca
Full Professor
I got my graduation in Pharmacy in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon (1981) and my degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (FFUP) (1995). I started my academic carrier in 1982 in the FFU and I am now a Full Professor of this Faculty and also the Head of the Laboratory of Microbiology of FFUP.
From 1995-2012 I was a member of Centro de Estudos de Química Orgânica Fitoquímica e Farmacologia da Universidade do Porto (CEQOFFUP) and the leader of the Bioassays Group and my main scientific area of research was the search of new compounds of natural and synthetic origin with immunomodulatory, anticancer and antiviral activity. Regarding the antiviral field I was mainly focused in the discovery of novel molecules against norovirus and characterization of their mechanism of action.
My present research interest is the surveillance and molecular epidemiology of human viruses, particularly enteric viruses. In the last years I have been mainly focused in human and canine noroviruses as well as in the zoonotic genotype 3 of hepatitis E virus (HEV) given its emergence in industrialized countries. Swine and deer are well-known reservoirs for HEV transmission to humans but we are looking for other potential animal reservoirs, including companion animals, and evaluating their potential zoonotic capacity. I am also interested in the detection of viruses in food (ex. shellfish) and water supplies since its contamination represents an important route of viral transmission to humans.
