Scientific Biography
In 2002 I graduated in Chemical Engineering by the Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal), with specialization in Applied Chemistry.
In 2007 I got my Ph.D degree in Chemistry by the Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal), with the thesis entitled “New Matrix Metalloproteinase and Carbon Anhydrase Inhibitors: Synthesis, Inhibition and Complexation Studies”, supervised by Prof. M. Amélia Santos and Prof. Sílvia Chaves. This research involved the areas of organic synthesis, analytical chemistry, and enzyme inhibition.
Between 2007 - 2013 I worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Centro de Química Estrutural (CQE), from the Instituto Superior Técnico, and the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Pisa (Italy). This project aimed at blocking several cancer-related proteins. It involved the design of multi-targeted MMP inhibitors, their synthesis, and in vitro evaluation of their biological activity (project funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT). Simultaneously I was involved in projects regarding the development of multi-targeted compounds against Alzheimer's disease.
Since May 2013 I have been working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Loschmidt Laboratories (Masaryk University, in Brno, Czech Republic).
This project involved the computational study of haloalkane dehalogenase enzymes (HLDs) in order to explain their activity profiles and aid the development of new mutant enzymes, based on the theoretical predictions. This work aims at improving their catalytic activity and stability, in order to enhance their biotechnological applicability in several fields, such as the degradation of halogenated pollutants, biosynthesis of enatiopure compounds, and biosensing of toxic compounds.
Between 2014 - 2016 I worked as a Marie Curie fellow at the Loschmidt Laboratories, which are part of RECETOX - Research Centre for Toxic compounds in the Environment. My research project ("BIOGATE") was funded by a prestigious grant awarded by the SoMoPro II programme, and was focused on the study and engineering of protein gates. Read more about the Biogate project.
From 2017 until now I have been a post-doctoral fellow at the Loschmidt Laboratories in collaboration with the International Clinical Research Center (FNUSA-ICRC). My research projects are focused on the computational modeling of biocatalysts aiming at engineering improved variants towards application in environmental remediation, or the study of biomolecules of medicinal interest.
In 2020 I became the coordinator and a teacher of the Hands-on Computational Enzyme Design Course, organized by the Loschmidt Laboratories.
In 2021 I started coordinating and teaching the Structural Biology and Bioinformatics course at the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University.
In 2007 I got my Ph.D degree in Chemistry by the Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal), with the thesis entitled “New Matrix Metalloproteinase and Carbon Anhydrase Inhibitors: Synthesis, Inhibition and Complexation Studies”, supervised by Prof. M. Amélia Santos and Prof. Sílvia Chaves. This research involved the areas of organic synthesis, analytical chemistry, and enzyme inhibition.
Between 2007 - 2013 I worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Centro de Química Estrutural (CQE), from the Instituto Superior Técnico, and the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Pisa (Italy). This project aimed at blocking several cancer-related proteins. It involved the design of multi-targeted MMP inhibitors, their synthesis, and in vitro evaluation of their biological activity (project funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT). Simultaneously I was involved in projects regarding the development of multi-targeted compounds against Alzheimer's disease.
Since May 2013 I have been working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Loschmidt Laboratories (Masaryk University, in Brno, Czech Republic).
This project involved the computational study of haloalkane dehalogenase enzymes (HLDs) in order to explain their activity profiles and aid the development of new mutant enzymes, based on the theoretical predictions. This work aims at improving their catalytic activity and stability, in order to enhance their biotechnological applicability in several fields, such as the degradation of halogenated pollutants, biosynthesis of enatiopure compounds, and biosensing of toxic compounds.
Between 2014 - 2016 I worked as a Marie Curie fellow at the Loschmidt Laboratories, which are part of RECETOX - Research Centre for Toxic compounds in the Environment. My research project ("BIOGATE") was funded by a prestigious grant awarded by the SoMoPro II programme, and was focused on the study and engineering of protein gates. Read more about the Biogate project.
From 2017 until now I have been a post-doctoral fellow at the Loschmidt Laboratories in collaboration with the International Clinical Research Center (FNUSA-ICRC). My research projects are focused on the computational modeling of biocatalysts aiming at engineering improved variants towards application in environmental remediation, or the study of biomolecules of medicinal interest.
In 2020 I became the coordinator and a teacher of the Hands-on Computational Enzyme Design Course, organized by the Loschmidt Laboratories.
In 2021 I started coordinating and teaching the Structural Biology and Bioinformatics course at the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University.