Iana Lychko is a Postdoctoral Researcher at NOVA University Lisbon, specializing in molecular biology, protein biophysics, and bio-based materials. With over seven years of R&D experience, she has expertise in recombinant protein production, purification, and characterization, as well as biophysical and material characterization techniques. Dr. Lychko is currently working on PROTEIOS – Protein Tunable Materials for Non-Invasive Sensing (FCT Grant PTDC/CTM-CTM/3389/2021), developing smart sensors for wound monitoring to detect infections before they become severe. She holds a Master’s (2018) and Ph.D. in Biotechnology from FCT-NOVA, with her Ph.D. (defended on October 7th, 2024). She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles (Materials Advances, Frontiers in Chemistry), with an h-index of 4 and a total of 240 citations. She is also the first author of three published articles, including one for which she created a scientific illustration that was accepted as the cover for a journal issue of Materials Advances. During her studies, in 2017 she completed internships at the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires de Marseille (CNRS, France) under the supervision of Prof. Olga Iranzo, learning peptide synthesis. Moreover in 2022 she did an internship at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) under the supervision Prof. Sophia Hober, where she gained expertise in protein technology and affinity ligand studies. Dr. Lychko has supervised three Master students, helped with research projects management, and contributed to patent preparation. She has an interest in data processing and analysis, with experience in Python programming that she applies to analyze complex data and material performance metrics. She has also been actively involved in organizing international scientific meetings. Beyond academia, Dr. Lychko is enrolled in entrepreneurship and innovation programs, such as HiSeedTech, focusing on technology commercialization and business strategy.