I am a Biochemist by training (University of Lisbon, 1992) with a scientific career focused on molecular microbiology. My primary research interest has been the molecular mechanisms governing the production of secondary metabolites in Streptomyces. Driven by passion, curiosity and persistence, I have continuously explored new questions, believing that each achievement paves the way for the next. After graduating, I pursued a PhD at the University of León, Spain (2003). During this period, my research was centred on the biosynthetic pathways of secondary metabolites and their regulation. My work led to the elucidation of the tailoring biosynthetic steps of the antifungal pimaricin, and I was responsible for the generation of the first designed polyene through targeted genetic manipulation. The significance of my work is reflected in my extended record on pimaricin-related publications and the award for the best PhD thesis of the year. My PhD provided me with extensive expertise in molecular biology methodologies, which was expanded during my postdoctoral periods working in several projects in Spain, France and Portugal. I integrated projects that ranged from fundamental EU-funded to industry-driven research and explored different microbiology-related issues. In 2005, I returned to Portugal where my research interests evolved to an integrative view of Streptomyces metabolism. In 2007, I secured National (105K €) and EU (165K €) competitive funding as principal investigator, which enabled me to establish an independent research line focused on the molecular networks governing secondary metabolism in Streptomyces. This funding and my scientific skills allowed me to attract students and establish my own research team. We unveiled the role of oxidative stress response in Streptomyces physiological and morphological differentiation. Our research definitely establish programmed cell death (PCD), triggered by oxidative stress, as a key event in Streptomyces life cycle. The scientific merit of our research and my communication skills were internationally recognized at the 18th International Symposium on the Biology of Actinomycetes (2017) with the ISBA18 Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek Prize. The work between 2007-2015 is reflected in a publication record of 20 papers, including the first publication as senior author. In 2015, my research interest evolved to synthetic biology and the application of its concepts to the heterologous expression of bacterial secondary metabolites. My scientific leadership and networking efforts led me to coordinate the TACRODRUGS consortium (2016-2020) focusing on the development of molecular tools for the production of natural products. We developed an Actinobacteria-based biotechnological platform (ActHost) for the heterologous expression of biosynthetic gene clusters that is currently being used in ongoing collaborations. While developing ActHost we recognized the need for a genomic repository that could be the source of novel gene clusters to express. At CIIMAR we have been sequencing the genome of marine Actinobacteria from their in-house culture collection. With this collaboration I developed proficiency in bioinformatics workflows in particular in (meta)genome assembly, annotation and genome mining.