PhD in Ciências Biomédicas in 2013/11/29 by Universidade do Porto, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar. Mestrado in Biologia e Ecologia do Litoral Marinho in 2007/12/17 by Universidade de Évora. Licenciatura in Biologia in 2003/12/18 by Universidade de Évora.

In February 2019 I initiated my work as a contracted researcher at MED, University of Évora. Since then, I have been involved in several projects related with the response of plants to abiotic/biotic stresses and on the influence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) communities in plant performance and their role in plant bioprotection. My work centres on wet lab epigenetics and the bioinformatic analysis of high-throughput sequencing data from both plants and AMF, regarding a further understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulating plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. This work has been done at the Molecular Biology Lab (MED/UE), and in collaboration with colleagues from the Plant Virology and Plant Mycology Lab (MED/UE), from the Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Lab (MED/UE), from the Soil Microbiology Lab (MED/UE), from the Entomology Lab (MED/UE), from LEAF/Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), University of Lisbon, and from IRTA - Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology, Barcelona, Spain.

Currently, I participate in the project ALCAROB - Aplicabilidade da cultura da alfarrobeira na sustentabilidade da agricultura no Alentejo, funded by Fundação “LA CAIXA”, aiming to find and study genotypes suitable for the Alentejo region. In 2023 I have also been awarded with a MED funded exploratory project – Epigenomic selection of wheat-AMF symbiotic relation under manganese stress.

I am (co)author of 30 published articles/book chapters mostly in Q1, counting more than 600 citations. I have an h-index of 14 (Scopus), and I am a regular reviewer of scientific manuscripts. I currently edit the special issue "Molecular Advances in Plant Plasticity upon Abiotic Stresses" on International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IF 5.6, Q1) and “New Advances in Molecular Diagnostics of Crop Pathogens” on Biology (IF 4.2, Q1). I am a Reviewer Editor for the Section Plant Symbiotic Interactions in Frontiers in Plant Science. Since 2019 I lecture on the UCs Melhoramento e Biotecnologia Vegetal (Master in Agronomics) and Plant Biotechnology (Degree in Biotechnology), at the UÉvora. Since 2023 I also lecture on the UCs Medical Genetics and Experimental Models in Biomedicine (Degree in Biomedical Sciences) at the UÉvora.