New Laboratory Inaugurated as part of the ERA|ARE Project

On September 20, an new laboratory was officially inaugurated as part of the project ERA|ARE - A New ERA for Environmental Risk Assessment: Chirality as a Tool to Promote Environmentally Safe Drugs. The project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and led by Rita Lado, a Principal Investigator from LSRE-LCM/ALiCE.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by notable figures, including Rui Calçada, Director of FEUP, Fernando Pereira, Director of DEQ, Arminda Alves, Coordinator of AliCE, Joaquim Faria, Coordinator of LSRE-LCM, as well as national members of the ERA|ARE Advisory Board.

The inauguration was also attended by the dedicated project team, who were instrumental in setting up the laboratory from scratch.

The ERA-ARE project aims to revolutionize environmental risk assessment by leveraging chirality to ensure the development of environmentally safe pharmaceuticals. The research line, led by Ana Rita Lado, focuses on understanding the role of enantioselective environmental processes in the behaviour of chiral antibiotics present in residual amounts in the environment. The results of this project will help to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance by providing innovative guidelines for assessing the environmental risk of chiral antibiotics and encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to research drugs that are safer for the environment.