Miguel Barbosa is a Marine Biologist and PhD student currently conducting research at the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA). He graduated in Marine Biology and Biotechnology in 2020, at the Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, on the Peniche campus (ESTM-IPL), and was always in close collaboration with the Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE-IPL). In the last year of his degree, he carried out the project course on the ecology and biotechnological applications of the Dunaliella microalga, at the CeteMares R&D Centre (MARE), which is a Portuguese reference laboratory in the fields of blue economy and aquaculture. During the course he also carried out an extracurricular internship at the environmental biotechnology company BioTask, working on the applications of the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica in the bioremediation of effluents. In 2020 he obtained a 3-month research grant under the “Anzol +” project, attributed by MARE-IPL, where he investigated new methods for monitoring fish stocks. He finished his master's degree in Microbiology in 2022, by the Instituto Superior Técnico from Universidade de Lisboa (IST), having finished his thesis with excellence, in partnership with the Faculdade de Ciências from Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL) and IPMA, which is the reference laboratory in Portugal for monitoring toxic phytoplankton and analyzing biotoxins. The master's thesis was focused on studying the effect of global warming on growth, photophysiology and toxin production by two species of toxic dinoflagellates from the Portuguese coast, Protoceratium reticulatum and Lingulodinium polyedra. During this period, he was heavily involved in the maintenance activities of the collection of microalgae cultures at the Universidade de Lisboa (ALISU) and participated as a speaker at the “XIV Iberian Meeting on Harmful Microalgae and Marine Biotoxins” (REDIBAL). From early 2023, he obtained a 1-year research grant under the “EUROCIGUA-2” project from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), attributed by the IPMA, which focuses on the characterization of Gambierdiscus spp. and on the risk of Ciguatera food poisoning (CFP) in Europe.