Sonia Fonseca

I am a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Wojtowicz Group. My research project aims to understand the impact of low protein diets on blood cell function, with a special focus on platelet production, and to identify the molecular mechanisms and functional consequences of polyploidization in megakaryocytes.

I graduated in Food Science and Technology in 2007 and gained my PhD in Food Microbiology at the University of Vigo in 2013. My research involved studying the microbial ecology occurring in food products and developing starter cultures for fermented meat products.

In 2017, I joined Prof Simon Carding’s group at the Quadram Institute as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist for 6 years, where I studied the effect of dietary-derived gut microbe metabolites on blood-brain barrier permeability, and the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties of extracellular vesicles produced by human gut commensal bacteria.