I am a biologist specialised in toxicology (ecotoxicology, environmental and biomedical toxicology). I hold a degree in Marine Biology from FCUL, a M.Sc. in Marine Ecology from IST-UTL and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from FCT-NOVA. I mostly divide my current research between environmental toxicology and marine biotechnology. Molecular toxicology, Histopathology, Genotoxicology and Bioinformatics and some of my strongest domains of expertise. I founded and run the SeaTox Lab @UCIBIO since late 2017.

At the Department of Life Sciences @FCT-NOVA, where I am an Auxiliary Professor, I perform both research and teaching (I highlight Bioinformatics, Toxicology, Molecular Genetics, Biotechnology and Laboratory Practices in Biology 1 - Histology and Histopathology).

BSc in Marine Biology in 2009 and MSc in Marine Ecology in 2011, both from the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon (FCUL). PhD in Biology (doctoral program in Marine Biology and Aquaculture, also by FCUL) in 2018, with specialization in marine eco-physiology of tropical ecosystems under climate change. Expertise in intertidal reef ecology, stress metabolism, biomolecular tools and multivariate statistical analysis.

Researcher at SeaTox Lab since Feb 2019, first working as post-doc in the WormALL project: “Marine invertebrates as source of novel biotoxins: Investigating function and application through Polychaeta venomics”. Now funded by a grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology since Sept 2020 (CEECIND/01526/2018) to work on the topic ‘Ecophysiological plasticity of marine fauna in temperate and tropical coastal wetlands: A systems biology approach to predict the consequences of extreme climatic events’.

Responsible for the development of multi-omics approaches and data analysis (including epigenomics, transcriptomics and proteomics) to characterize (i) complex venom mixtures, biotoxin cloning and annotation and (ii) characterize molecular networks of vulnerable vs tolerant species to climate change stressors. Other activities include mentoring and supervision of students, science dissemination activities and lab co-management.

I am a marine biologist specialized in ecology of coastal systems, with deep knowledge in ecotoxicology. My academic career started at University of Salento (Italy), where I completed a graduation in Biology (2008), followed by a MSc in Biology (2011) and a PhD (2017) at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). 

In January 2019, I moved to the SEATOX LAB, benefitting from a post-doctoral fellowship within the “GREENTECH” project, dedicated to marine invertebrates and biotechnology (drug discovery). Until now, my main tasks have been the extraction of pigments and toxins from marine polychaete Eulalia viridis, performing the Comet assay for testing the genotoxicity of these biotoxins. The next step will be to assess the acute toxicity of these compounds on daphnid crustaceans. 

I am a marine researcher with special interest in the fields of marine biotechnology, ecotoxicology and marine environmental science. I have a MSc in Environmental Engineering and PhD in Environment and Sustainability. I have worked within the fields of marine toxicology, addressing the impact of possible pollutants in marine organisms, and marine biotechnology, investigating the biotechnological value of biotoxins from marine annelids.

My expertise is mainly on marine invertebrates, especially in the physiology of the production of bioactive compounds, their chemical characterisation and the assessment of their potential and other issues of upmost relevance for drug discovery and application in biomedical research. My current work is focused on understanding how organisms can adapt to adverse environmental conditions and provide clues about human susceptibility to disease, by applying multi-omics techniques.

I have been developing my work on the domain of environmental toxicology, particularly in the field of aquatic toxicology. After my M.Sc., I have been involved on project GreenTech and now in project WormALL, both of which in the field of biotechnology, more specifically, on bioproducts from marine Polychaeta. Additionally, I am currently a PhD student addressing risk assessment and molecular toxicology of toxicant mixtures, namely carcinogenic toxicants and emerging pollutants. I aim at studying their interactions using both in vivo and in vitro tests. Dspite my expertise on histology and histopathology (which are in the core of my laboratory's expertise), I have been exploring molecular techniques related to transcription and whole-transcriptome analyses, within the scope of my PhD project.

My professional carrier started in the field of ecotoxicology, marine ecology and environmental monitorization, through the development of my M.Sc. thesis (2013) on the potential effects of contaminated sediments on benthic fish. As an Environmental Engineer, I joined both national and international projects about the ecotoxicological effects of microplastics in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, at organ and tissue levels. In 2018, I joined SeaTox Lab at UCIBIO/FCT-NOVA, where I expanded my knowledge on molecular biology, as well as continued to work in histopathology and related areas, through the participation in projects as GreenTech and WormALL. In 2020, I was awarded with a PhD grant from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and started my PhD in Biotechnology at UCIBIO/FCT-NOVA, where I am exploring novel bioactive compounds through the study of toxins from cephalopods.

I am currently undertaking a PhD in Biology, where I aim to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying regeneration in marine annelids. Along my academic career, I was awarded with two research fellowships associated with "The MARVEN Project: The Portuguese biotechnological database for marine animal venoms and toxins" (ref. FA_05_2017_007) and with "ExtremeOceans - Unravelling evolutionary physiology landscapes of coastal marine fauna under extreme temperatures using a multi-layer Systems Biology approach" (PTDC/BIA-BMA/1494/2020). I recently completed a Master's degree in Molecular Genetics and Biomedicine (FCT-NOVA, 2022). My Master's Thesis was developed at SeaTox Lab and Computational Multi-Omics group, where I aimed to identify marine toxins that may interact with human receptors. This drug discovery approach was encompassed in the research project "WormALL - Marine invertebrates as source of novel biotoxins: Investigating function and application through Polychaeta venomics" (PTDC/BTA-BTA/28650/2017). I graduated in Molecular and Cellular Biology (FCT-NOVA, 2019).