Research Group of (Micro)-Separation Techniques

Merichel Plaza is a Ph.D. Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Analytical Chemistry of the University of Alcalá. She received her Ph.D. in Food Science and Technology at the Autonóma University of Madrid in 2010 and carried out 5 year-research at the Department of Chemistry in Lund University, Sweden. She is co-author of more than 50 Science Citation Index research papers, 3 articles in non-SCI-journals, 10 book chapters in the top-level international publishers, 3 book chapters in national publishers, 9 conference proceedings, 1 patent, and she has co-edited a book. She has more than 72 contributions to conferences and has been involved in 23 national and international research projects and 1 R&D contract. She has obtained the Young Researchers 2018 Award from the University of Alcalá that recognizes her brilliant scientific carrier. Her main research interests focus on the study and characterization of new bioactive compounds, including the development of new advanced extraction and analytical methods to obtain and characterize interesting food-related compounds. She has employed different environmentally sustainable extraction processes based on the use of sub- and supercritical fluids, combined with statistical tools, such as experimental designs, for achieving the optimal extraction conditions to obtain extracts rich in bioactive compounds from natural sources (macro- and microalgae, plants, fruits, agricultural by-products and waste, bacteria, among others). She has carried out the development of a high number of analytical methodologies based on the use of liquid, supercritical, and gas chromatography, all of them online coupled to different detection modes (UV, mass spectrometry, electrochemical and amperometric pulse, fluorescent, charged aerosol detectors), which allowed the full characterization of the substances and complex natural extracts. Also, she is involved in the development of new metabolomics strategies to identify targeted and untargeted biomarkers of plant and food aimed to point out chemical evidence related to biological researches and applications of natural compounds in humans and animals.