Rúben Filipe Silva Luz holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of the Azores, where he developed a polyphasic framework to investigate secondary metabolites from freshwater and thermal cyanobacteria of the Azores Islands. His research program integrates classical cyanobacterial taxonomy with advanced OMICs approaches, including genomics and metabolomics, coupled with functional bioactivity screening using zebrafish as an in vivo model. He is a core contributor to the REBECA project (INTERREG-MAC), which resulted in the establishment of BACA – the Bank of Algae and Cyanobacteria of the Azores, and currently serves as its Culture Collection Curator, with responsibility for strain curation, taxonomic validation, and biotechnological valorization. He has participated in and led research activities within several national and international projects, including REBECA-CCT, 3B-Vent, Microalgae-IT, and CALYPSO, and is presently a contracted researcher in the AlgaeFusion project. Rúben is certified for laboratory animal science functions A, B, C, and D, and has extensive experience in the design, execution, and supervision of zebrafish-based bioactivity and toxicity assays. He actively supervises MSc and BSc students and co-supervises graduate research projects focused on cyanobacterial bioactivity, metabolite screening, and applied biotechnology. He has delivered numerous first-author oral communications at international conferences and has published 13 peer-reviewed scientific articles, eight as first author. His current research interests focus on cyanobacterial systematics, biodiversity, and the discovery of bioactive secondary metabolites, bridging morphology and ecology with high-throughput OMICs data to support both fundamental research and translational applications.

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CIBIO-A - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos
june of 2025 until atualmente