Dr. de Moura Bell research program focuses on the development of bio-guided processing strategies that make use of structure and functionality as the benchmark for the production of healthier, safer, and sustainable foods. Her research goal is to develop structure/function-based processes to produce foods that will improve human health, with the translation of these processes into the industrial realm being the ultimate goal of her work. To accomplish this goal, her research has focused on the development of sustainable processing strategies to extract, modify, and recover food compounds; conversion of agricultural waste streams/food processing by-products into valuable compounds; and evaluation of the effects of thermal treatments on the functionality and biological activities of food compounds.
Specifically, she is interested in bio-processing techniques such as enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction, fermentation, and less harsh techniques like supercritical and subcritical extractions. Her laboratory research interests include: 1) Scaling-up extraction and downstream recovery processes from laboratory to pilot-scale; 2) Determining the effects of processing conditions (extraction, heat treatment, enzymatic modifications and recovery strategies) on the functionality and biological activities of food components (proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates), and 3) The conversion of agricultural waste streams/food processing by-products into high added-value compounds.