Ana Rute Neves is the Senior Manager for the Department of Bacterial Physiology & Improvement in the Discovery unit of the Research & Development organization at Chr. Hansen. She is a biochemist with about 20 years’ experience (1996 – 2017) in bacterial physiology and metabolic engineering. Her expertise covers metabolite profiling, fermentation, transcriptomics, genetic engineering and strain development. Rute´s research interests are primarily directed to the identification of factors and understanding of mechanisms that control cellular metabolism in Gram-positive bacteria. In particular the elucidation of molecular mechanisms involved in carbon metabolism have been at the core of her research. The insights gained from these studies provide the firm basis for selection and/or design of strains with desired functional properties. Before joining Chr. Hansen, Rute headed a research group in Bacterial Metabolic Engineering at the Novo Nordisk Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark (2012-2013), and the Lactic Acid Bacteria & in vivo NMR group at Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology, New University of Lisbon, Portugal (2004-2012). Since she joined Chr. Hansen in 2013, Rute has placed major efforts in implementing systems biology approaches to foster strain development activities.
Rute is a co-author of 56 peer-reviewed publications, has contributed with several oral communications by invitation/selection and is co-inventor of 1 patent. She has coordinated several R&D projects with various national and international collaborations. Rute has supervised over 30 students and researchers in academic settings until 2013 when she joined Chr. Hansen. She acts as reviewer for various peer-reviewed journals, has participated in several scientific evaluation committees and is member of two scientific advisory boards.