Currently I am a researcher at the ITQB NOVA. I have developed my research activities in the area of Microbial Genetics, with special incidence on the genetic analysis of development in the model organism Bacillus subtilis and more recently in the spore-forming pathogen Clostridioides difficile. I completed my PhD degree in Biology from NOVA University under the supervision of A.O. Henriques in 2004. During my doctoral studies on the model organism B. subtilis, I have worked in close collaboration with top laboratories in the field of Microbial Development, including those of RUDNER (Harvard Medical School, USA), RICCA (Frederico II University, Italy) and MORAN (Emory University, USA). I also visited the RICCA and MORAN labs at different occasions, and these visits were crucial for my development as a researcher. More recently, I have worked in collaboration with the DUPUY (Pasteur Institute, France), SALGADO (Newcastle University), and McBRIDE (Emory University, USA) on the characterization of sporulation in the pathogen C. difficile. I have published 3 book chapters and 44 papers in international peer reviewed journals with 2054 citations and an h-index of 24 (Google Scholar; scientific publishing name M Serrano). I am the first author in 10 of the 44 papers and corresponding author in 4. My first paper as a corresponding author was published in 2019 in Journal of Bacteriology and was selected for the month Spotlight by the editor. 11 of the 44 papers were published in major multidisciplinary scientific journals, specifically in NATURE Communications, PNAS and PLOS Pathogens. I have participated in numerous national and international meetings and courses, in which I presented as oral or posters my work. The participation in these meetings was in occasionally supported by Institutions such as the Gulbenkian Foundation and the American Society for Microbiology. During my doctoral and post-doctoral work, I was awarded individual doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT). In 2014, I was award the project IF/00268/2013/CP1173/CT0006 (from FCT) that covered my salary. In 2018, I was awarded a FCT grant as PI (Finding targets for Clostridioides difficile infection control, total funding of 238 612.13€. I was also instrumental in the writing of 2 funded projects (over 2 500K€): the ONEIDA project that aimed the consolidation, expansion, and integration of an OMICS technology core to provide solutions to: hospital-associated infections, antibiotic resistance and associated research questions; and the DETECT project, included in the framework Research4COVID-19, aimed to develop an Easy, fast-Track and Economical Colorimetric Test for autonomous national diagnosis of COVID-19. ). In 2023 I was award 2 projects in translational science that aim to develop a versatile and cost-effective nanoplatform for pathogens detection, founded by InnOValley Proof of Concept Fund (IOV PoC) and La Caixa foundation (100K€). I have been supervising multiple Master Degree (24) and PhD students (9). This was acknowledge by an invitation to give a talk in the Clostpath Young Scientists Meeting (Leiden, 2019). My reputation and competence in the field is also evidence by the invitation to argue Master Thesis (6) and PhD Thesis (7), to serve on PhD thesis committee and review papers. I have been teaching and coordinating courses in ITQB PhD programs and in NOVA Master Degree courses. I am also a member of the executive and admission committee of the PhD program on the Biology at the Host Microbe Interface.  I have been actively involved in several outreach activities, such as school visits, opens day and press releases. I have endeavoured Institutional Responsibilities as member of the ITQB NOVA Safety and Floor Coordination Committee and as co-head of the Bacterial Imaging Cluster at ITQB NOVA, a node of the Portuguese Platform of BioImage.