creating a
healthier future
Joana Barros
Junior Researcher

Joana Barros (JB) obtained a degree in Genetics and Biotechnology (2009) and an MSc in Biotechnology for Health Sciences (2011), both at Univ. Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD). Part of the experimental MSc work was performed at Univ. La Rioja (UR), under an Erasmus grant. In 2019, JB concluded PhD (Cum Laude) in Biomedical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), in collaboration with the Institute for Biomedical Engineering (INEB)/Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S), and Univ. Minho (UM). Besides, she has worked as an R&D scientist on several projects (10), involving national and foreign universities, institutes, and companies, contributing to increasing her scientific independence, management, leadership, and networking competencies. Additionally, she acted as the main external examiner in graduation degree juries (15), and as a reviewer for several scientific international journals (5). She served on the organizing, scientific, and chairing committees of several events, and in international/national Working Group (WG) and Management Committee (MC) meetings and science dissemination programs for schools. She published 23 (13 as the first author and 10 as the corresponding author) peer-reviewed papers in international journals (h-index = 16, 632 citations, Scopus), 3 peer-reviewed proceedings, 1 book chapter, and 31 peer-reviewed abstracts in the lecture library. She has been involved in the annotation and registration of 2 phage genomic sequences (GenBank, 2018) and the development of two commercial products. JB presented her work at several national and international conferences through oral (7) and poster (24) communications and invited lectures to post-graduation students (4). She has mentored and supervised 10 PhD (6 ongoing), 7 MSc, and 2 BSc students. As a result, her research has been highlighted by the media and she was distinguished with 8 awards. Currently, she is a Junior Researcher (CEECIND, 5th edition) at i3S, and her research has been focused on the development of multifunctional approaches, based on anti-infective biomaterials and drug-delivery systems, as biological and bioactive platforms, for efficient human infection treatment

Selected Publications

García-González C.A., Barros J., Rey-Rico A., Redondo P., Gómez-Amoza J.L., Concheiro A., Alvarez-Lorenzo C., Monteiro F.J.
Antimicrobial Properties and Osteogenicity of Vancomycin-Loaded Synthetic Scaffolds Obtained by Supercritical Foaming. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces10(4):3349-3360, 2018. [Journal: Article] [CI: 45] [IF: 8,5]
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b17375 SCOPUS: 85041364600

Barros J., Grenho L., Fontenente S., Manuel C.M., Nunes O.C., Melo L.F., Monteiro F.J., Ferraz M.P.
Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli dual-species biofilms on nanohydroxyapatite loaded with CHX or ZnO nanoparticles. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part A105(2):491-497, 2017. [Journal: Article] [CI: 21] [IF: 3,2]
DOI: 10.1002/jbm.a.35925 SCOPUS: 84996553212

López-Iglesias C., Barros J., Ardao I., Monteiro F.J., Alvarez-Lorenzo C., Gómez-Amoza J.L., García-González C.A.
Vancomycin-loaded chitosan aerogel particles for chronic wound applications. Carbohydrate Polymers204:223-231, 2019. [Journal: Article] [CI: 152] [IF: 7,2]
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.10.012 SCOPUS: 85054721321

Zegre M., Barros J., Ribeiro I.A.C., Santos C., Caetano L.A., Gonçalves L., Monteiro F.J., Ferraz M.P., Bettencourt A.
Poly(DL-lactic acid) scaffolds as a bone targeting platform for the co-delivery of antimicrobial agents against S. aureus-C.albicans mixed biofilms. International Journal of Pharmaceutics622:, 2022. [Journal: Article] [CI: 9] [IF: 5,8]
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2022.121832 SCOPUS: 85132453603

Barros J.A.R., Melo L.D.R.d., Silva R.A.R.d., Ferraz M.P., Azeredo J.C.V.d.R., Pinheiro V.M.d.C., Colaço B.J.A., Fernandes M.H.R., Gomes P.d.S., Monteiro F.J.
Encapsulated bacteriophages in alginate-nanohydroxyapatite hydrogel as a novel delivery system to prevent orthopedic implant-associated infections. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine24:, 2020. [Journal: Article] [CI: 62] [IF: 6,5]
DOI: 10.1016/j.nano.2019.102145 SCOPUS: 85077500728

Barros J., Ferraz M.P., Azeredo J., Fernandes M.H., Gomes P.S., Monteiro F.J.
Alginate-nanohydroxyapatite hydrogel system: Optimizing the formulation for enhanced bone regeneration. Materials Science and Engineering C105:, 2019. [Journal: Article] [CI: 67] [IF: 5,9]
DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2019.109985 SCOPUS: 85070098816

Barros J., Melo L.D.R., Poeta P., Igrejas G., Ferraz M.P., Azeredo J., Monteiro F.J.
Lytic bacteriophages against multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli isolates from orthopaedic implant-associated infections. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents54(3):329-337, 2019. [Journal: Article] [CI: 55] [IF: 4,6]
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2019.06.007 SCOPUS: 85069824931

Skwira A., Szewczyk A., Barros J., Laranjeira M., Monteiro F.J., Sądej R., Prokopowicz M.
Biocompatible antibiotic-loaded mesoporous silica/bioglass/collagen-based scaffolds as bone drug delivery systems. International Journal of Pharmaceutics645:, 2023. [Journal: Article] [CI: 5] [IF: 5.3]
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2023.123408 SCOPUS: 85172027917