I graduated in Biology (2002) after completing my diploma research in Developmental Biology under the supervision of Prof Solveig Thorsteinsdottir and Prof Isabel Palmeirim (Faculty of Sciences, Lisbon), which resulted in a paper in Development where I am co-first author. I then moved to the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG, Dresden, Germany) for a PhD (2003-2007, Technical University of Dresden) and a short post-doc (2007-2009) with Carl-Philipp Heisenberg. Here I showed a novel role for cortical flows and cell adhesion during zebrafish gastrulation movements and gained expertise in live imaging using 2-photon microscopy, molecular biology and quantitative image analysis. During this time I published 8 peer-reviewed articles (one in Development as first-author, 5 as co-author, one methods paper and one review) and participated in several international meetings. In 2009 I moved back to Lisbon for a post-doc with Antonio Jacinto, first at Instituto de Medicina Molecular and from 2012 at the current institute (Chronic Diseases Research Center/NOVA Medical School, CEDOC/NMS), to study epithelial repair. Our transfer to CEDOC involved two major lab moves that involved setting up new labs, for which I contributed significantly. Our work has been focusing on understanding how cytoskeleton and cell-adhesion dynamics contribute to proper epithelial repair, using mostly Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) as a model system, but also the zebrafish. During this time, I have gained expertise in spinning-disc confocal live microscopy, laser ablation, Drosophila genetics and expanded my microscopy image analysis skills. Altogether this work has resulted in 6 peer-reviewed publications: 3 where I am first or co-first author, 2 where I am corresponding author, and 2 where I am second author. In total I am now author in 15 peer-reviewed papers, with over 700 citations and H-index of 12 (Web of Science). I also obtained competitive national and international fellowships (one Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship and two Post-doc fellowships from Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, FCT), two competitive national FCT-funded grant where I am Principal Investigator, and another as co-PI. Additionally, I participated in various national and international conferences and workshops, including 5 invited talks, one of them awarded as best talk. I also supervised 1 Post-doc, 5 Master and numerous undergraduate students, mentored 4 PhD students and co-supervised a PhD student, and currently co-supervise a Master student. I also regularly participate in grant and paper writing, article reviewing, project management and as jury in academic degrees. Throughout my career I have been engaged in teaching. Of most relevance is my role as regular lecturer (since 2015) at the Medicine Degree, Biomedicine Research Master and Biomedicine PhD Programs at NOVA University Lisbon. I have also been active in science outreach (e.g. institute open days, European Researchers Night), organizing scientific meetings and courses (e.g. Portuguese Drosophila Meeting) and representing the interests of early career researchers (member of CEDOC Post-doc committee).