Having completed a Bachelors Degree in Biology at the Faculdade de Ciências of the University of Lisbon and a Masters Degree in Microbiology at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) of the University of Lisbon, i began my research career as a research assistant working under the Lactosynt project at the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB) of IST, where i continued the work i developed during my Masters Thesis. This mostly consisted in the development of a CRISPR/Cas9 based genome editing plasmid for use in Lactococcus lactis, with the intent of creating an improved strain for plasmid DNA production. Following my time in the Lactosynt project, i carried out research on the behalf of the Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento (IST-ID) for Akron Biotech. This work involved screening several Escherichia coli strains for improved plasmid DNA production, mostly through incubation in several defined media, as well as assembly of shotgun sequencing data into full genomes and their subsequent analysis. Currently, i’m working as a research assistant included in the NanoSens-RNA project taking place at the Centro de Química Estrutural (CQE) and iBB of IST, where i’m designing and developing DNA origami nanostructures for use in novel biosensors, employing plasmonic nanoparticles. My research interests include general molecular biology, with particular focus in strain engineering of bacteria using CRISPR/Cas9 technologies, as well as DNA nanostructure origami and their various applications.