I am an Assistant Professor in Glycoscience, at the Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit & i4HB Associated Laboratory-NOVA School of Science and Technology (UCIBIO-FCT-NOVA) and Leader of the UCIBIO GlycoLab ¿ Functional Glycobiology Lab. I am also an Honorary Research Fellow at Imperial College London. RESEARCH MOTIVATION Glycans are exciting molecules as they have been uncovered to mediate a vast number of biological processes in endogenous cell-cell and cell-microbial communication. My research is driven to understand the function of glycans, their structure and recognition by effector proteins, and their impact on human biology and disease. Glycan microarrays are now state-of-the-art methods in modern Glycosciences to identify novel glycan-binding proteins and pinpoint glycan function. The focus of my research has been on developing glycome-based microarrays for interrogating glycomes and proteomes leading to: 1) glycan ligand discovery and function; and 2) unraveling of glycan-recognition systems. I am following structure-function integrative approaches combining glycan-microarrays with complementary methodologies such as X-Ray crystallography, NMR and other biophysical techniques. These have been applied to study endogenous and microbial glycan recognition systems, glycan-mediated pathogen-host interactions and antibodies for cancer diagnosis and therapy. OUTPUTS OF SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY 57 peer-reviewed journal articles, including 4 invited reviews and 7 book chapters (C=2558, WOS h-index 26, as of February 2024); 1 patent; CRA with Siamab Therapeutics ; 13 Invited Lectures (international conferences, workshops, schools and seminars); 9 oral communications. FUNDING - 3 FCT individual fellowships/contract (PhD and Post-doc, FCT investigator); 16 FCT research grants (4 PI; 1 co-PI); Santander Totta 2013 and Bluepharma 2014 Awards; CellMAbs and Siamab funds; 1 NIH grant (researcher); GLYCOTwinning - a collaborative network of Excellence in Glycoscience funded by Horizon Europe (co-Coordinator). SUPERVISION Trained and supervised 5 MSc students; 9 PhD students (4 ongoing) and 2 Post-Doctoral Researchers. THE JOURNEY INTO THE GLYCOSCIENCES FIELD I joined the Glycosciences Laboratory of Prof. Ten Feizi (Imperial College London), first as visiting scholar (2004-2005) during my PhD and thereafter as a post-doctoral fellow (2007-2009), funded by the Portuguese FCT. While at the Glycosciences Lab, I developed pioneering work in designer glycan microarray approaches to study glycan recognition systems of biological and biomedical impact and in the setting-up of a state-of-the-art glycan microarray and in its application to glycan-ligand discovery. I returned to Portugal end 2009 and joined the protein crystallography group of Prof. Maria João Romão at FCT-NOVA. Here I implemented the glycan microarray technology combined with X-Ray crystallography to study endogenous lectin recognition systems (e.g. malectin, Dectin-1) and microbial glycan degradation of complex polysaccharides (bacterial cellulosomes). In 2013, I was awarded a 5-year Starting Grant under the highly competitive FCT Investigator international call, which allowed me to start my independent journey and set-up a glycan microarray laboratory, supported by 2 research project grants from Portuguese FCT. This enabled me to train Master and PhD students in Glycoscience, establish key collaborations and attract competitive funds to establish a line of research in Functional Glycobiology at UCIBIO. TEACHING Since 2010, I have been enrolled in teaching Biochemistry and Metabolism at the Biochemistry Section at FCT-NOVA. I am also a scientific advisor and teacher of the e-learning course Glycobiology and Glycochemistry and I started in 2017 the Curricular Unit Glycobiology and Disease, which is given to the Master programs in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and Biomedicine.