Regina Menezes is a Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor at Lusófona University, with a PhD in Biological Sciences–Genetics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, including doctoral research at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
With extensive experience in research and higher education, her expertise spans molecular and cellular biology, metabolic regulation, proteostasis, nutrition, and metabolic diseases. She has longstanding teaching experience in the biomedical and life sciences, particularly in microbiology, molecular and cellular biology, and related areas, combining research-led teaching with the supervision and training of undergraduate and postgraduate students. She currently leads the Diabetes Research team at CBIOS, where her research focuses on diabetes, particularly pancreatic β-cell dysfunction, IAPP proteotoxicity, and the molecular and nutritional strategies to preserve β-cell function and metabolic homeostasis, with particular emphasis on dietary (poly)phenol-derived metabolites.
She has authored more than 65 peer-reviewed scientific publications, with an h-index of 26 and over 6,500 citations, and has successfully supervised ten MSc and PhD graduates, while currently leading further doctoral research projects.
Her research has been supported by competitive funding and is embedded in multidisciplinary international collaborations spanning diabetes, dietary bioactives, proteostasis and translational research.
Her international recognition includes serving as Portugal's representative on the Management Committees of several European COST Actions, as a project reviewer for the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia and the National Science Center - Poland, and as a member of an international selection committee for a tenured academic position at the University of Barcelona.
She is Director of Societal Impact and Community Engagement at CBIOS and serves on scientific and ethics committees. Her distinctions include the Nuno Castelo-Branco Prize from the Portuguese Diabetes Society, the VIVER SAUDÁVEL Research Project of the Year Award, and a Special Mention in the Quanterix Neuroinflammatory Biomarkers Initiative.