DC4 - Diogo Antunes

Fellow Presentation :
Hello everyone. I am Diogo, from Portugal, and I am DC4 in the MSCA FAIROmics Doctoral Network. My host organisation is Novonesis A/S (Denmark), and my degree-awarding institutions are the Free University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and the University of Vigo (Spain).
I hold a Master of Science degree in Applied Microbiology, complemented by a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. In my education, I specialised in the fundamentals of microbiology, while also studying its biotechnological and medical applications. Throughout my degrees and after, I have been involved in various projects covering different subjects, from microbial biotechnology to evolutionary biology, and more. Overall, these have been diverse and interesting experiences that have further developed my skills, both experimentally and computationally.

In my project, “Knowledge-driven Design of Plant-fermenting Microbial Cultures”, I aim to identify strains and cultures that can improve the nutritional and/or organoleptic properties of plant-based materials through fermentation. I also aim to gain a mechanistic understanding of the processes leading to these improvements, and by combining all the generated knowledge, I hope to develop a workflow to rationally design microbial communities with the desired fermentative properties. This project is thus part of the FAIROmics work package, which studies and designs microbial communities for the fermentation of plant-based matrices. It will also serve to update the knowledge graphs that will be created in other work packages by other DCs.

I am passionate about microbiology and life at the cellular and molecular scale. And when you have such a holistic interest in a biological subject, I believe the best way to study it is by a systems biology approach. This is, in essence, what drew me to this exciting project. But to that, I would also add the strong multidisciplinary nature of this fascinating doctoral network, which I believe will be a great opportunity to learn many new things and truly develop my skills. Finally, I would also highlight that it is a pleasure to be part of a project and network dedicated to such a sustainable goal as plant-based foods.