I completed my PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2000 by Mayo Clinic (USA), under supervision of F. Rusnak, and G. Bacic from University of Belgrade (Serbia). I did my postdoc studies with J. J. G. Moura (2000–03) at FCT-UNL and with D. Murgida and P. Hildebrandt (2004–07), at TU Berlin and ITQB-UNL. In 2008 I established my own group, Laboratory for Raman BioSpectroscopy at ITQB. In the last couple of years, I have spent extended periods of time as a visiting scientist at University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and at UniSysCat Cluster of Excellence at Technical University of Berlin, as well as at Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan, where I was awarded visiting professorship. Formally, I am a biophysical chemist, with expertise in spectroscopy of metalloproteins (e.g. NMR, EPR, IR, Raman). My group at ITQB is has multidisciplinary expertise ranging from biochemistry and molecular biology, to advanced vibrational spectroscopy and electrochemistry and spectro-electrochemistry. Our work is focused on understand the relationship among sequence, structure and function in metalloenzymes carrying heme, Fe-S, copper active sites, which perform diverse cellular functions: electron transfer (ET), detoxification, enzymatic catalysis, signaling, DNA repair, respiration and gene regulation. We have particularly contributed to the current state of the art in molecular processes at interfaces, which are ubiquitous in biology and also constitute the basis for the functioning of enzyme-based bioelectronic devices. In that respect, we have developed an integrative methodology based on surface enhanced vibrational spectroscopy (surface enhanced resonance Raman, SERR, and IR, SEIRA), electrochemistry and UV-Vis spectro-electrochemistry, which has provided unprecedented details about the mechanistic and structural properties of immobilized enzymes that show a high potential for biotechnological applications, e.g. cytochrome P450, peroxidases, heme sensing proteins, laccases, endonucleases, nitrite reductases, as well as about the enzymes which exert their physiological function in the immobilized state (e.g. membrane proteins such as heme copper oxidases). We are also interested in label-free Raman imaging and chemical mapping of cells as well as the use of Raman spectroscopy for virus detection. I have coordinated seven national and international projects and participated in over 20. Currently I co-coordinate one European Commission Twinning initiative TIMB3 that was awarded 1 million Euros, and coordinate one national project, I participate in another EC initiative RISE and a COST Action FeSBioNet (management committee member) and in two ongoing national projects. I have an extensive network of ongoing national and international collaborates; the latter include: D. Murgida University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, PL Hagendorn, TU Delft, the Netherlands, M. Fraaije, RU Groningen, the Netherlands, P. Hildebrandt TU Berlin, Germany, L. Rubio, U Politecnica de Madrid, Spain, H. Haas, U Innsbruck, Austria, S. Mansy, U Alberta, Canada. I am an active reviewer of RSC, ACS, Wiley and Elsevir journals for the work covering biospectroscopic and biophysical subjects, and I often act as an expert grant evaluator (e.g. BBSRC). I am frequently invited speaker at conferences (8 in the last 5 years). I also actively participate in teaching activities at ITQB-NOVA Universidade Nova de Lisboa and in supervision of Master, PhD (currently 1) and postdoctoral fellows (currently 4). I moreover take part in organization of international scientific events (1st Training School Chemistry of Metals in Biological Systems upcoming Imaging in biosciences, mini-workshop within TIMB3 project in 2019/2020), and in science outreach activities of the host institute (ITQB-NOVA Open Day) and I hold institutional functions (coordinator of ITQB-NOVA research facilities).