Ana Preto is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology - University of Minho, and a Consultant Researcher at IPATIMUP/i3S. She graduated in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Faculty of Pharmacy in 1998 and completed her PhD in Human Biology by the Faculty of Medicine in 2004, both at the University of Porto. Her main areas of interest are in: unravelling the role and mechanism of action of short-chain fatty acids, produced by propionibacteria from the diet in colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention and therapy; understanding the role of KRAS mutations signaling pathways in autophagy/apoptosis regulation in CRC survival; the identification of new molecular targets/approaches for resistant metastatic CRC, which could inspire other groups to the development of new drugs for specific target of CRC cells; and studying the molecular mechanisms of new anti-cancer drugs and nanoparticles. She has also been determining the effect and mechanism of action of new promising ruthenium compounds in CRC therapy.