Ana Alves is currently a PhD student at 3B’s Research Group - I3Bs, Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics, at University of Minho, Headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at Avepark, under the supervision of Doctor Tiago H. Silva and Professor Ricardo Pérez-Martín from Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas from Vigo. Ana Alves completed her BSc in Biochemistry in 2011 from University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. In 2013 she completed with excellence (18 in 20) the master's degree in Applied Biochemistry (specialized branch: Biomedicine) by the same university. From 2013 to 2015, Ana Alves integrated a team as research grantee, involved in a multidisciplinary project called: "CETSENTI -: Cetaceans as marine ecosystem health sentinels", the project focused on the assessment of population status and health of coastal cetacean species, not only to monitor the risks to the populations themselves but also to be able to use them as sentinels of the health of marine ecosystems from the Iberian Atlantic basin. Using metagenomic tools, the bacterial biodiversity of different biological samples from dolphins was evaluated. In September 2016, she started pursuing her PhD at 3B’s Research Group under the scope of the doctoral program in Marine Science, Technology and Management (Do*Mar) at the University of Minho, being the focus of her research the use of by-products of marine origin as a valuable source of biopolymers with high potential into tissue engineering and biomedical applications. The work that she has been developing is mainly focused on the extraction and use of collagen and gelatins from the skin of codfish and blue shark and use these biopolymers as groundwork to produce biomaterials to be applied on cornea regeneration. She is very experienced in the isolation of collagen and gelatin from marine-origin by-products being well knowledgeable of the specific procedures and characterization methodologies of those materials. As a result of her research work, she is the author or co-author of 7 peer-reviewed papers in international journals, 24 poster presentations. She attended several important conferences in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.