His scientific career is focused primarily on metabolomics, biodiscovery of bioactive metabolites, and food fermentation. Since 2001, Dr Villas-Boas has established international expertise in metabolomics, with over 100 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, 9 book chapters, and 5 patents. Dr Villas-Boas has contributed and co-edited the first international text-book on metabolome analysis published by John Wiley & Sons (2007), and he is also the co-director of Green Spot Technologies, a start-up focused on food innovation via fermentation (www.greenspot-tech.com).