Personal

Short Bio
Born in Bragança (Portugal) in 1971 I grew up in Cascais where I still live with my (body&soul) mate + a clutch of the 4 most beautiful embryos ever produced (Dé, Dany, JP & Bá)! Growing up, summers were often spent in the countryside in Bragança in contact with nature...naturally I became a Biologist! Graduated in Biology in 1994 from the Fac. Sciences Univ. Lisbon, I followed a post-graduation in Dev Biology from Lusófona Univ, studying gastrulation in sea urchins. In 2004 I finished my PhD in Anatomy and Cell Biology from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the State University of New York, at Buffalo NY - USA studying cell migration in 3D. As an undergrad I also lectured in high-schools, and during my PhD worked part-time as assistant of Confocal Microscopy Lab of SMBS/SUNY-Buffalo. In 2004 I returned to Portugal to teach Dev Biology at the Instituto Piaget - Almada and started a post-doc at FCUL in 2006. In 2008 I became an auxiliary researcher at the Centre for Environmental Biology (CBA/FCUL), during which I served also as a member of the Executive Committee (2009-2010), and as manager of the FCUL's Microscopy Facility. Between 2017-2020 I was an invited professor of Bioimaging at FCUL. I have authored articles and book chapters on developmental and cell biology and Bioimaging and have participated and organized several national and international advanced courses on microscopy and bioimage analysis. I currently head of the "Advanced Imaging" facility of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Oeiras. Outside science I'm interested in rock music, photography, home-improvement, mechanics and spending time with our brood.