Inês Machado has a BSc in Biotechnology (2016) and a MSc in Medicinal Chemistry (2018). In her BSc project, she interned at Laboratory of Clinical Analysis of São Lázaro investigating Escherichia coli’s resistance towards quinolone antibiotics. During her MSc, she became acquainted with chemistry applied to drug design for diagnosis and therapy. In her MSc thesis about neurodegenerative diseases, she was involved in the synthesis and application of amino acids with antioxidant activity, gaining varied skills in organic chemistry (synthesis/separation techniques), including the multicomponent Ugi reaction (synthesis of new polyphenolic amino acids), in cyclic voltammetry, radical-scavenging activity assays, and spectroscopic techniques (NMR, absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, mass spectrometry). During this period, she contributed to 2 oral communications (1 at an international congress), 3 posters (2 as 1st author), and co-authored 1 article entitled “An efficient one-pot synthesis of polyphenolic amino acids and evaluation of their radical-scavenging activity” (10.1016/j.bioorg.2019.102983). After her MSc, Inês obtained a research grant at 3B’s (UMinho) (Mar2019 - Dec2021) linked to the development of marine-inspired biomaterials for human tissue regeneration, gaining skills related to tissue engineering and biomaterials, namely extraction, purification, and other characterization techniques (FTIR, CD, rheology, DSC, SEM) and cell culture. In this project, she was 1st author of the article “Marine gelatin–methacryloyl–based hydrogels as cell templates for cartilage tissue engineering” (10.3390/polym15071674), co-authored the article "Cell-laden marine gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels enriched with ascorbic acid for corneal regeneration stroma" (10.3390/bioengineering10010062), and presented 3 posters at international conferences. Between Feb-July 2022, she was a research fellow at ISISE (UMinho) in the LightSlab project, being involved in synthetic chemistry and mechanical tests. After that, she worked at IPC (UMinho) as a research fellow for the Marplas project, where she contributed to the identification, evaluation, and characterization (Raman spectroscopy and FTIR) of microplastics in water samples, broadening her set of practical skills. During this period, she presented 1 poster, co-authored 2 posters and 1 oral communication at international conferences. From Aug2023 until Feb2024, she continued at IPC but as a researcher in the “EMBALAGEM DO FUTURO” project, where she worked in the microencapsulation of essential oils in polyurea and characterization using FTIR, optical microscopy, TGA and SEM. Noteworthy, Inês also contributed to the ongoing FCT project "POLYmix-POLYmic" (2022.06595.PTDC) as the 1st author of the article "Machine Learning Modeling and Insights into the Structural Foundations of Polymyxin-like Antimicrobials" (ChemRvix, DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2023-mqzjb) and the proceeding paper “A Game with a Purpose: Designing Structural Modifications in Polymyxin B to Face Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria” (DOI: 10.3390/msf2023023002). These results were also orally presented at an international conference. This work is not only directly related to this PhD proposal but also evidences a fruitful collaboration with the co-PI of the project who is also a member of the PhD supervision team. During her MSc and the following research grants, she also participated in science management/dissemination activities, improving her organizational skills and making her acquainted with the multisided work of a research scientist. Particularly, she was member of the organizing committee of the “III Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry of UMinho” (2017) and, recently, she was participated in the outreach event "Dia Aberto do DEP 2023".