I am an Invited Assistant Professor (full time) at Instituto Universitário de Ciências da Saúde CESPU and an Associate Researcher
at the Cancer Drug Resistance (CDR) Group at i3S, Portugal. I am a Managing Committee member (representing Portugal) of the
COST Action CA21116 (2023-2027).
I hold an H-index of 17 with 36 publications (23 in the last 4-years), being 1st author in 12 papers and last or corresponding
author in 5 papers.
In 2006, I graduated in Applied Biology at Univ.Minho (UM), Portugal.
In 2012, I completed an European PhD in Health Sciences (4-years FCT grant) at UM, in collaboration with the Institute of
Cancer Biology (Denmark) dedicated to identify novel compounds/combinations to improve cancer therapy.
In 2012, I moved to UK for a 3-year Postdoc contract at Division of Cancer Therapeutics, Institute of Cancer Research (ICR).
My main project aimed to identify novel genes crucial in pancreatic cancer, by performing a high throughput screening of a
panel of cell lines. Promising results obtained prompted new research projects inside the group. I was also involved in multidisciplinary
Drug Discovery Projects by performing preclinical studies that led to the enrollment of 2 small molecules into Phase 1 clinical
trials. I also generated pancreatic cancer cells resistant to a drug to test “in house” small molecules.
In 2015, back to Portugal, I joined CDR at i3S, led by Prof. Helena Vasconcelos. I was selected by the same group for a Postdoc
Grant (1 year, 2016) within a funded project to study the contribution of Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) to cancer drug resistance.
In 2017, I was awarded with an Individual FCT Postdoc Grant (2017-2023), in the same group, to understand the contribution
of macrophage-secreted EVs to drug resistance in pancreatic cancer. This work, in collaboration with IPO-Porto, was published
in Cancer Letters, 2021 (PMID: 33212158) as 1º author, giving rise to a new line of research in the group. I am also involved
in other related projects to identify novel compounds/drug combinations to counteract cancer drug resistance. In 2021, I received
a financial stimulus to lead a “Beacon Project” in the framework of Porto Comprehensive Cancer Center.
I am establishing strong international collaborations as a member of 3 COST Actions: CA21135: “Modelling immunotherapy response
and toxicity in cancer” (2022-2026); CA21116: “Identification of biological markers for prevention and translational medicine
in pancreatic cancer”(2022-2026) and CA17104: “New diagnostic and therapeutic tools against multidrug resistant tumors” (2018-2022).
I am supervising 5 PhD (ongoing) and 11 MSc (1 ongoing) students, and 10 (1 ongoing) students doing master/course degree.
I was involved in teaching activities, giving practical classes as Invited Assistant at Faculty of Pharmacy, University of
Porto, in 2021 and 2023 (6 months) and as an Invited Professor at Dep. of Biology-UM in 2022 and 2023 (6 months).
I was a Guest Editor of 3 Special Issues: “Drug Repurposing for Cancer Therapies” (IJMS), “Targeting the tumor microenvironment
for cancer treatment” (JMCM) and “Bioactive Molecules as Multidrug Resistance Modulators" (Molecules). I am on the Reviewer
Board of IJMS, Molecules, JMCM and Cancer Treatment and Research Communication. I reviewed more than 50 papers for international
journals.
I am a Science Ambassador for EACR and i3S. I am an EORTC member. I am involved in Science dissemination for undergraduate
students through CiênciaViva.
I am involved in writing funded competitive projects, in organizing and as scientific committee of national and international
meetings. I have been invited as jury member of doctoral and master thesis, and as an evaluator of national and international
research projects.