**About the Editors**

#### **Marco F. L. Lemos**

Marco Lemos (Ph.D.) is an associate professor at the Polytechnic of Leiria and researcher at the Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE) focusing his research on the study of ecotoxicological modes of action and also in the marine biotechnology field. Currently he is the Director of the COVID-19 Diagnostic Centre of the Polytechnic of Leiria. He was the Coordinator of R&D Units Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE-IPLeiria) and Marine Resources Research Group (GIRM), and the Coordinator of CETEMARES building (Marine Sciences R&D, Education, and Knowledge Dissemination Centre), and also the national MARE Biotechnology line coordinator. He is the PI of several national and international projects including other research centres and the industry.

#### **Sara C. Novais**

Sara Novais (Ph.D.) holds a Ph.D. in Biology and is currently an assistant researcher at the Polytechnic of Leiria and coordinator of the Biotechnology and Resources Valorisation research line of MARE. She was part of the coordination board of MARE-IPLeria. Her scientific interests are related to the study of toxicological mechanisms, pathways and chemical modes of action using technologies and other biomarker tools, applied to the fields of ecotoxicology, ecology, aquaculture, and biotechnology. She is involved in several national and international projects with both academia and industry, supervising several Ph.D. and M.Sc. students and actively publishing in the field.

#### **Susana F. J. Silva**

Susana Silva (Ph.D.) holds a Ph.D. in Food Sciences (University of Reading, UK, 2008) and is now an associate professor at the Polytechnic of Leiria and member of MARE-PLeiria. Has been involved and coordinated several projects with food chain stakeholders involvement, which have resulted in several published findings, novel food product prototypes and patented processes and food packaging solutions. Her current main research goal is to actively contribute towards more sustainable food products conservation and packaging solutions, namely by the substitution of plastic polymeric material by edible formulations and by the substitution of synthetic additives by extracts of marine origin.

#### **Carina F ´elix**

Carina Felix (Ph.D.) is an assistant researcher in marine biotechnology working at Cetemares, ´ Polytechnic of Leiria. She is currently studying bioactive compounds of invasive seaweeds and their possible applications in several fields, from agriculture to cosmetics. Holds a Ph.D. in biology by the University of Aveiro, with a specialization in microbiology, having extent experience in multi-omics functional analyses of phytopathogenic fungi.
