Cristina Martinez-Villaluenga Editor

Blanca Hernández-Ledesma earned her Pharmacy Bachelor Degree in 1998, and defended the PhD thesis in Pharmacy in 2002. Her research career is focused on the biological activity of food proteins/peptides aiming at a better understanding of their health implications and the development of novel food ingredients. She is author of 73 JCR articles, 9 popular science articles, and 30 book chapters. Her results have been presented in 75 international and national conferences. She has supervised 4 Doctoral Thesis and 14 Master Thesis. She has participated in more than 30 international and national Research Projects. She has participated as member of Selection Board for Tenured Scientists, PhD and Master Thesis Dissertation committees, reviewer in international PhD theses, and member of National and International Projects Evaluation Panels. She is member of the Editorial Committees of 2 books and 8 journals and collaborates as reviewer for more than 90 journals. Dr. Cristina Martínez-Villaluenga is a Research Scientist at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) since 2010 with particular expertise in the development of biotechnological innovations to maximize the health benefits of underexploited plant-derived foods for their application as nutraceuticals and functional ingredients. In addition, the elucidation of the mechanism of action of food compounds in disease prevention and management is other of her research goals. She has B.S. Degrees in Biology and Food Science and Technology from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). After receiving her Ph.D. from the Automoma University of Madrid in 2006, she was a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign between 2007 and 2009. Her current research is focused on the sustainable and cost effective production of novel bioactive peptides for prevention and management of hypertension, inflammatory diseases, obesity and metabolic disorders. Dr. Martinez-Villaluenga has participated in several national, European and industrial research projects with large private companies. Dr. Martinez-Villaluenga holds 2 patents and has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and books on the areas of Food Science, Technology and Molecular Nutrition. She has actively involved in mentoring of undergraduate, MSc, and PhD students and teaching in postgraduate programmes from Autonoma University of Madrid.