Meet our Chemical Analyst
Now that we’re a fully operational Innovation and Enterprise Campus, we’ve been busy adding experienced technical support staff to our team. Our technical staff bring a wealth of experience and expertise to AberInnovation and are perfectly placed to help innovative companies with all their R&D needs.
You’ve already met Pam, our Food Technologist. We’d next like to introduce Pedro, our newly-appointed Chemical Analyst, who’ll talk to us about his career to date and how his role will help to share the future at AberInnovation.
Q: Tell us about your experience and career so far?
A: I grew up always wanting to be a doctor (physician) and at 40 years old, I finally got my doctorate. I started studying Chemistry early, at 15 years old I was practicing the theory of both organic and analytical chemistry in proper school labs.
I attended the University of Lisbon and studied Technological Chemistry for five years. I was also very artistic and played the piano to a professional level. At the final stage of my course, I was fortunate to find myself a project for my final year within the Portuguese Conservation and Restoration Lab and this is the moment where I merged my passion for the Arts and Chemistry. I initially established the first database of InfraRed Micro-spectroscopy (micro FTIR), and I was privileged to use the samples of panel paintings from 16th Century painter, Garcia Fernandes during the restoration of Lisbon Cathedral’s belongings.
My first Master’s in Chemistry applied to cultural heritage. The ability to study a work of art, through the light of chemistry completely inspired me and opened my eyes to the value of craft. I also studied oil, particularly through Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) which gave me insight to the greater detail of the diversity of oils used by painters throughout the ages. Finally, I developed an oil database characterised by high resolution mass spectrometry for my PhD. While completing this I also took the opportunity to study oxidative stress in plants.
In my early career after completing my education, I worked for the Jose de Figueiredo Laboratory as a consultant where I was responsible for managing reports on the analysis of works of art for forensic review, like those featuring on the BBC programme Fake or Fortune?
Later on, I came to Wales, joining Bangor University’s Mass Spectrometry Lab as a postdoc, where I was first introduced to the BEACON Project as a Research Officer. I was responsible for supervising research technicians completing their PhDs: looking at extraction and characterisation of plant materials, peptide fragmentation and proteomics, and much more. Now at AberInnovation, I seem to once again have come full circle, combining my love for food and art and using mass spectrometry for food security and metabolomics research.
Q: What has been your biggest career highlight so far?
A: I would say that a strong highlight for me was delivering my first research presentation at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (Harvard Art Museums) for the Mass Spectrometry and Chromatography Users Group (MaSC). As a young professional that was a big deal, all of my peers stood in front of me, I was so nervous. The Chair of InfraRed User’s Group at the time had to calm me down before I opened my presentation! Later on, we were also invited to a dinner held in the historical Museum. I enjoyed the whole experience.
Q: What first sparked your interest in pursuing a career as a Chemical Analyst?
A: As mentioned, I always wanted to be a doctor of some kind. I did not completely map out what my future would look like as a Chemical Analyst, I was happy exploring everything under the umbrella of Chemistry, in a multidisciplinary way. My family gave me the freedom to pursue a career based on my interests and that’s exactly what I did.
Q: In terms of advanced analysis research, what are some of the most exciting emerging trends?
A: I was fortunate to witness the development of one particular up and coming area of progressive research which I would like to mention: my PhD supervisor and colleagues at the Research Institute AMOLF (Amsterdam/Netherlands) were exploring Bruker advanced MALDI imaging technologies and are now developing the ‘mass microscope’ as a result, so I keep my eye on that particular development.
I look forward to working on research projects around the kinetic modelling of food quality, exploring the different reactions in foods that can affect its quality. Metabolomics research (the scientific study of chemical processes involving metabolites: the small molecule substrates, intermediates and products of a cell metabolism) is a very current and a fascinating field - I hope that through the work undertaken at AberInnovation, we can bring better health to many people through evidence-based improved dietary awareness and new food products.
Q: What’s the best thing about being a Chemical Analyst?
A: Easy! It’s finding the missing links, establishing those links, and identifying what is hidden in complex mixtures and combinations. Basically, I see myself as a modern-day Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie! Research and development and problem solving are my motivations.
Q: What do you see is in store for AberInnovation’s future? What excites you the most about joining the team and what do you hope to achieve?
A: In the simplest form I am excited by the challenge - the challenge of establishing a new role at a state-of-the-art facility, combining so many elements of my career to date to help industry develop new innovative products and services for the market.
I once worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant for a year. That really gave me an insight into food science, so the fact that I now work at a research campus which houses a Future Food Centre and Advanced Analysis Centre under one roof is thrilling for me.
The future is definitely now, and it’s happening at AberInnovation through industry and academic collaboration. We are about to create and study a global survey of British diets through a metabolomics viewpoint – amazing! It is food science at its very best: for the good of mankind and science. The pipeline of projects being developed at the moment, and all the ideas that we are working on just in the first weeks of me being in post are very exciting, and I am delighted to be a part of it all.
Find out more about AberInnovation's Advanced Analysis Centre
