Prof. Francisca Serra

Francisca Serra is a university professor of Nutrition and Food Science (January 2011) and has taught at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) since 1990. She began her career as a CEU (Professor of University School) of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1990–1998) and, since 1998, of Nutrition and Food Sciences; she was credited as a professor in May 2009. She graduated with a degree in Biological Sciences from the UIB in 1985 (Extraordinary Degree Award) and obtained her PhD in Biological Sciences (UIB) in 1989. She was the Director of the R&D Office at UIB (1993–1996) and National Expert at the European Commission (1997–2000) in the Directorate General for Science, Research and Development (Brussels), participating in tasks of international scientific cooperation in the field of nutrition and food science (COST Programme). She is a promoter of the UIB technology-based spin-off Alimentómica SL and is director of R&D. Her research focuses on the study of the molecular basis of obesity, body weight regulation according to nutrients, gene–nutrient interaction (nutrigenomics), and the impact of perinatal diet (epigenetics) on susceptibility to adult obesity. She is working on the study of gene variants that affect the risk of obesity and their modulation by bioactives (nutrigenetics). Her interest is in the characterization of functional foods rich in ingredients that could help counteract obesity and, in particular, those optimized for specific genotypes.