INVESTIGADOR RESPONSÁVEL
Nome do Investigador Responsável (IR) do projeto: Raquel Viveiros
Contacto IR: raquel.viveiros@fct.unl.pt
Departmento: Departamento de Química (DQ)
UID: LAQV REQUIMTE
FINANCIAMENTO
Tipo de Financiamento: privado
Entidade Financiadora: ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY
Referência da Call: ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY RESEARCH FUND
Referência: 101168616
Entidade proponente: NOVA FCT
Montante total do projeto: 5593.59 euros
Montante total para a NOVA.id: 5593.59 euros
Taxa de financiamento: 100%
PROJETO
Acrónimo: SUSMATER
Título do Projeto: SUStainable development of bioMATERial–based platforms to avoid the spread of infection diseases: from computational design to green production
Data de início: 03/11/2025
Data de fim: 02/11/2026
Breve descrição do projeto:
According to the World Health Organization, infectious diseases kill more than 17 million people/year and are the world´s leading cause of premature death. In addition, millions of people, develop infectious diseases as a direct result of bacterial/viral infections that could be prevented. There is a strong relationship between bacteria stored on surfaces and a negative impact on human health.
Surfaces are handled thousands of times a day containing a huge source of bacteria. Banknotes, mobile phone covers, hospital surfaces, public transports and handles can hold different types of bacteria causing infections, to which the body´s immune system cannot deal with. Banknotes for example are made of cellulose, durable, soft, paper material which give them the strength and the characteristic touch. Since they are folded, stretched, handled, taken out of pockets, thousands of times during their lives. By simply touching a banknote, bacteria can adhere to our hands, and large amounts of bacteria pass into our bodies (hands, mouths or eyes), causing illness.
Lack of hand sanitation in our daily lives prompts this route of bacteria spread.
SUSMATER proposes a green, simple, innovative, scalable and optimized methodology to modify cellulose (mimicking banknotes) to prevent bacteria proliferation and transmission, involving a multidisciplinary team with expertise: (BioSIM|U.Porto, Sérgio Sousa and Maastricht University, Ana Furtado) in computationally pre–design antimicrobial cellulose surfaces, (LAQV–REQUIMTE|NOVA SST, PI, Raquel Viveiros) in green development of antimicrobial cellulose using supercritical carbon dioxide (sccCO2) technology, and (i3S|U.Porto, Marco Araújo) in the antimicrobial activity assessment.
