Paula Sampaio is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biology, University of Minho, and principal investigator at CBMA/IB-S, where she has led a research group in fungal biology and antifungal resistance for twenty years. She holds a PhD in Biological Sciences (2005) and a Master's degree in Microbial Molecular Genetics (1999), both from the University of Minho, and an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Coimbra (1995). Her research sits at the intersection of medical mycology, environmental microbiology, and translational antifungal research, developed across three integrated themes. The first is fungal identification, molecular epidemiology, and environmental surveillance. Microsatellite-based strain typing tools for Candida albicans and C. parapsilosis, adopted internationally for outbreak investigation, led to a national patent (PT 115216) for a multiplex PCR method enabling simultaneous species identification and resistance marker detection from clinical and environmental samples. The group described C. bracarensis, a novel Candida species, and developed molecular identification frameworks for Sporothrix spp. and Aspergillus spp. More recently, yeast communities from environmental matrices including coastal systems of Northern Portugal have been characterised, where isolates showed reduced azole susceptibility and enhanced virulence-associated traits, raising questions about the role of environmental reservoirs in resistance emergence. The second is antifungal resistance mechanisms, virulence, and host-pathogen dynamics. The group has characterised resistance determinants and virulence factors across clinically relevant species, including azole resistance mechanisms in Aspergillus section Fumigati investigated through whole-genome sequencing and comparative genomics, establishing capacity to link phenotypic resistance to genomic variants across environmental and clinical isolate collections. Studies on benzo[a]phenoxazine derivatives demonstrated potent activity against fluconazole-resistant WHO critical-priority pathogens including C. auris, and metabolic profiling of dual-species Candida biofilms revealed how interspecies interactions modulate resistance expression in mixed-reservoir contexts. The third is translational antifungal strategies. A divalent liposomal vaccine co-delivering C. albicans Cht3 and Sap2 antigens induced protective Th1/Th17 immunity and improved survival in a murine invasive candidiasis model (npj Vaccines, 2025), completing a full antigen-to-pre-clinical pipeline achieved by few European medical mycology groups. These converging lines reflect a sustained interest in antifungal resistance as an eco-evolutionary process shaped by selective pressures operating across environmental and clinical reservoirs. Paula Sampaio serves as Director of the Doctoral Programme in Molecular and Environmental Biology, Deputy Director of the Department of Biology, and CBMA representative in MIRRI-ERIC. She coordinates the accredited Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme One Health Approach to Host–Fungus Interaction and Virulence (6 ECTS, 2025) with six European partner universities. She has supervised 4 postdoctoral researchers, 13 doctoral students, and 43 master's students, and currently supervises Alexandre Mendonça, whose doctoral work on Aspergillus resistance genomics represents an active continuation of the group's programme. She serves as Principal Investigator of the FCT project CHITMOD (2025–2027) and as Review Editor at Frontiers in Infectious Agents and Disease and Microbial Immunology.