Dr. Beatriz Fernández Gómez

Name: Dr. Beatriz Fernández Gómez

Educational Qualification: PhD, Postdoc

Designation: Postdoctoral Researcher

Department: Bioscience group (CIAL-CSIC)

Email: b.fernandez@csic.es

Research Interests: The focus of my research has been to analyze the value of coffee by-products in order to take advantage of the potential benefits derived from their content in fiber, nutrients and bioactive compounds, as well as to validate the use of new products for commercialization and human consumption in accordance with the current legislation in Europe and its economic viability. Also the mechanisms of action of compounds present in the new food sources in chronic diseases, such type 2 diabetes and obesity, using in vitro and in vivo studies are in the scope of my research.

Biography: I am PhD in Food Science from the Autonomous University of Madrid (Madrid, Spain). I did my second degree in Food Technology from the University of Vigo (Galicia, Spain). During these studies, I focused my knowledge in the effect of food in health. I had the opportunity to apply for a PhD grant to New antiglycative ingredients: Mechanisms of action and applications in food and health. In November 2011 I obtained a grant from Spanish Minister for four years. Also, the grant allows me to stay each year from 3 to 4 months with other research groups. For that I was in the Institute of Nutrition and Food Sciences (Molecular biology department, Granada, Spain), University of Naples “Federico II” (Department of Agriculture, Naples, Italy) and University of West of England (Department of biological of biomedical and analytical Sciences, Laboratory for Diabetes Studies, Bristol, UK). The PhD thesis was directed by the Research Institute of Food Science (Laboratory of Food Bioscience, CIAL-CSIC, Madrid, Spain), it was started in January 2012 and was read in May 2016. The research conducted during the PhD was focused in the mechanism of action of compounds present in new ingredients and food by in vitro and in vivo studies. Specifically, I studied the effect of coffee silver skin extract, a roasting coffee by-product, on type 2 diabetes. In my current work as postdoctoral researcher at Bioscience group (CIAL-CSIC), I am in a multidisciplinary group using my background knowledge in order to organise acute and repeated dose 28-day oral toxicity study in rodents to analyse the value of four coffee by-products on human consumption in accordance with current legislation in Europe. In parallel, I perform studies with diverse cell lines such as beta cells (INS-1E), fibroblasts (CCD-18) and podocytes (HK) in order to evaluate the effect of natural antioxidants and their mechanism of action to prevent the effect of high fructose exposure.