Environmental and Biological Mass Spectrometry

Principal Investigator

Maria Helena Florêncio
Full Professor, PhD Utrecht University, The Netherlands (1979)

Research

The main long-term objective of the Environmental and Biological Mass Spectrometry group is to explore the potentialities of advanced mass spectrometry and spectroscopy in order to investigate at molecular level, the structure, reactivity and energetics of compounds with, mainly, environmental and biological interest.

Advanced mass spectrometry (‘Hyphenated’, tandem MS, high resolution (FTICR MS) and spectroscopic techniques, applied to environmental, biochemical/biological, conservation and forensic sciences, enable the structural characterization of compounds, even at trace level, and in complex matrices (as for example degradation products of emerging contaminants in the aquatic environment), of particular importance to the elucidation of chemical and biochemical reaction mechanisms and to the development of decontamination processes encompassed in the strategic area entitled Sustainable Chemistry for Functional Molecules and Materials, defined for CQB. These advanced analytical capabilities are also of major importance and a key issue for characterization and properties evaluation of bioactive molecules that can potentially contribute for the development of novel therapeutic agents and medicines and for evaluation of the effectiveness and safety of these molecules, a topic encompassed in the strategic area entitled Biochemical Regulation, Disease Etiology, and Therapeutics, also defined for CQB.

Theoretical methodologies are also applied as a support for rationalization of molecular ion structure, mechanisms and gas-phase thermochemistry data.