Manuela F. Frasco holds a degree in Biochemistry (2000) and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (2007), both from the University of Porto. Currently (since 02/2023), she is an Invited Assistant Researcher at BioMark, in the Department of Chemical Engineering (DEQ), at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC). She has an h-index of 18 and 2539 citations (google scholar), 47 publications (37 of which are Scopus indexed), 1 patent application, and over 60 oral/poster communications and invited talks/lectures. She was PI of a bilateral cooperation project Portugal-Germany (FCT-DAAD funded) to develop photonic hydrogels to detect extracellular vesicles of neuronal origin and was Co-PI (defining the idea, writing and implementation) of the project STRIP2SENSE to develop photonic-based sensors for venous thromboembolism biomarkers (FCT funded). She was team member/researcher of 15 National and International Projects, and of 2 International Cooperation Projects Portugal-France and Portugal-Slovenia. She has been the main supervisor of 3 PhD theses (1 concluded), main supervisor of 4 MSc theses (concluded), co-supervisor of 2 PhD thesis (concluded), and of many undergraduate students and fellows of research projects. For the past 7 years, she established a new research line at the BioMark group dedicated to combine (i) bioinspired photonic materials and (ii) natural-based biopolymers and integrate them into optical biosensors applied to disease diagnosis and environmental monitoring. She is experienced in toxicology, enzymatic biomarkers, nanomaterials-based sensors, functionalization of materials with chemical/biological recognition elements (ionophores, aptamers, antibodies, biomimetic polymers), characterization of nanoconjugates and analytical validation of biosensors. She has also designed biocompatible and biodegradable polymeric nanocarriers for anticancer drug/gene delivery, including in vitro testing in cell cultures. Current scientific interests include stimuli-responsive polymers, photonic nanostructures, colloidal systems, biomimetic and bioinspired materials, and processing of natural-based biopolymers. She aims to harness these topics into innovative biosensors choosing greener materials and low-cost tools to increase the sustainability of the field.