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I finished my undergraduate studies in 2001 in Chemistry and completed my PhD in 2006 in Protein Crystallography at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. 

In 2007 I began a post-doc, which was followed by a 5-year contract as Assistant Researcher (Ciência2008), starting in 2009, in the same University.
In 2012 I initiated my independent work as PI of two financed projects from the Portuguese Science Foundation – reviewed by an international panel and with a ca 12% rate of success.

In 2014 I obtained an independent position – Investigador FCT, reviewed by an international panel and with a 14% rate of success – granted by the Portuguese Science Foundation, to develop my research project at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

In 2014, I was the awardee of the Clara Immerwahr Award 2014 of the Cluster of Excellence UniCat, of the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, promoting women in science. The award consisted of a 15 000 euros prize money and 4 months stay in the lab of Prof. Silke Leimkühler at the University of Potsdam, Germany.

In 2015 I applied to a project of the Portuguese Science Foundation as PI which was recommended for funding, starting in 2016.

The main focus of my research is the structural characterization of drug-target complexes, namely organometallic molecules with biological activity.

I have also been involved in the study of molybdenum enzymes and their chaperones, transporters and related enzymatic mechanisms.

In my research activities, I have been the supervisor of five undergraduates, six MSc (one ongoing) and four PhD students (ongoing), together with three Post-Doc fellows (two ongoing).