In 2017 I finished my graduation in Biochemistry from Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa. Then, I decided to volunteer to a research internship in the Inorganic Biochemistry and NMR (IBN) group ITQB NOVA, to gain experience working in a laboratory. In the first years working in this group, I participated in two main projects that comprised the cloning, purification, and characterization of proteins. These projects provided me with experience in molecular biology, microbiology and biochemistry.In 2018, I decided to apply for the Clinical Microbiology and Emergent Infectious Diseases Master's, in FMUL. For my thesis project, entitled “The Shewanella genus – Understanding an emerging human pathogen”, I joined three different fields and laboratories, including ITQB NOVA, Unidade Microbiologia Molecular e Infecção da FMUL and the Fish Facility of the Instituto de MedicinaMolecular (IMM), to unravel the virulence factors of the pathogenic bacteria Shewanella. During this time, I increased my expertise in different fields, including bioinformatics techniques, phylogenetic and phenotypiccharacterization, genome editing by knock-out strain construction and pathogenic studies using zebrafish embryos. Since 2020, I had the opportunity to present my work in four international and national meetings, one of them with a Youth Travel Fund Grant attributed by the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS). I have one manuscript accepted, as co-author. I was also involved in several projects, such as the Covid-19 task force, in both IMM and ITQB NOVA, integrating the volunteers' team for performing the detection of the virus in human samples. I also participated in the “Cientista vai à Escola” project of ITQB NOVA where researchers speak about science for students from pre-elementary school until high school. Besides science, I am eager to learn and get involved in society. In 2018, I joined the European Voluntary Service and spent two months with children in Latvia. These projects were important for me to increase several soft skills, such as teamwork, organization, communication and resilience.