In 2017 I finished my degree in Biotechnology in the University of Évora and then enrolled in the master's degree in Viticulture and Oenology. During the master's degree, I carried out a curricular internship at Fundação Eugénio de Almeida in Évora, in the viticulture department and at the Cartuxa winery, and finished this degree in 2019 after developing and presenting the master's thesis entitled "Comparative study of the behavior of free and immobilized yeasts during alcoholic fermentation of must – the dynamics of involved population”. After that, I focused on developing my professional experience in the viticulture and oenology private sector, by carrying out two internships at Fundação Eugénio de Almeida, in Cartuxa’s oenology lab and in their olive oil mill’s lab (2020), and working at the oenology lab of Herdade das Mouras de Arraiolos’ winery, initially as a lab technician and later as head of the Quality and Food Safety department (2021-2022).

In 2023, I returned to University of Évora with a research grant in MED’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology, within the scope of the project “Vine&Wine”, sub-project BioGrapeSustain, with the aim of characterizing grapevine molecular mechanisms involved in the differential response to abiotic stresses. I enrolled in the PhD program in Biology in University of Évora, where I will develop this research in a PhD thesis, along with the study of the role of plant-associated microbiomes in grapevine response to drought stress. Since then, I have been supervising the work of several undergraduate students in MED’s molecular biology lab. Their work focuses on genotyping grapevine populations using microsatellites associated with fungal resistance, determination of the levels of reactive oxygen species, activity and expression of antioxidant enzymes in grapevine in response to drought stress, the characterization of grapevine’s proteome under drought conditions, and the characterization of CAX genes in grapevine and their involvement in adaptation to drought.

Additionally, I have been working on expanding my knowledge by attending several seminars and courses, such as the advanced courses “Proteomics Approaches in Life Sciences” from University of Coimbra, and “Plant Functional Biology - Models, crops and genomics strategies towards phenotype-genotype inference” from University of Porto. I participated in several other events, such as the MED Meeting '23 and the European Researchers’ Night (2023 and 2024 editions), where I contributed to the organization of activities regarding the role of plant breeding in agriculture sustainability. I was also able to present my work in national and international conferences, including oral presentations in the VIII PhD Students Meeting in Environment and Agriculture, and in the 3rd International Electronic Conference on Plant Sciences. Furthermore, I contributed to the writing of the chapter “Metabolomics Connecting Genomes and Phenomes in Plant Molecular Breeding – a Special Focus on Mediterranean Agronomical Important Tree Species” in the book “Plant Molecular Breeding in Genomics Era - Concepts Tools and Applications” (Springer), currently under review, and the review article “Applicability of metabolomics to improve sustainable grapevine production” for Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, section Metabolomics, which allowed me to deepen my knowledge in metabolomics.