Eliana Alves graduated in Biomedical Laboratory Science by Porto Polytechnic Institute (Porto, Portugal), where she started her career as Assistant Professor. She received her MSc and PhD degrees in Biology, both from the Biology Department and Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) of the University of Aveiro (UA) in Aveiro, Portugal.
In 2014, she started working on the lipidomics (the study of lipids using chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques) of virgin olive oils at the Mass Spectrometry Centre of the Chemistry Department & Organic Chemistry, Natural and Agro-Food Products research unit (QOPNA, UA). By then, she discovered that polar lipids, that include phospholipids, glycolipids and many others, could provide a molecular fingerprint of each olive oil. In 2015, Eliana Alves was awarded a Post-Doc fellowship from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) to develop a lipidomic-based methodology to unequivocally establish the molecular fingerprint of olives and virgin olive oils from the Portuguese olive variety Galega, based on lipids. In 2018, she was given a contract from FCT to become a Junior Researcher to carry on her work on the same subject, widening the scope of her research to other olive varieties. Her main focus has been to provide a new insight on the chemical composition of the olive fruits and virgin olive oils by discovering lipid compounds with potential biological activity, namely polar lipids and minor fatty acids. She has found several dozens of them, in the olive pulp, in 2019.
Eliana Alves has published 37 original papers and 1 book in co-authorship, issues 1 national patent, has done more than 40 communications in national/international scientific meetings, and has co-supervised BSc and MSc students. She is a member of the European Federation for the Science and Technology of Lipids (EuroFedLipid). She is passionate about the Mediterranean diet and its positive health effects.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5396-6536