Post-doctoral researcher in IHU Liryc, University of Bordeaux

During the period of my Ph.D., I gained extensive experience in maintaining hiPSCs in culture and performing their differentiation into cardiomyocytes. In addition, I acquired different skills in terms of phenotype characterization assays, namely: animal handling, in vivo experimentation, qPCR and other molecular biology techniques, immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, determination of mitochondrial respiration (via Seahorse system), calcium imaging, drug screening, CRISPR/Cas-9 application. For 11 months of my Ph.D., I performed work in a research group in the Francis Crick Institute, in London, UK. There, I was involved in developing a genome-corrected isogenic healthy control hiPSC line, by means of applying CRISPR/Cas9 technology and subsequent homologous recombination-mediated repair. In addition, the research group where I have been working is highly multidisciplinary, with research projects involving nanotechnology, biomaterial modifications, and high-throughput drug screening technologies. Furthermore, two original research first-author articles will result from my Ph.D. work (currently, one submitted and other in preparation). In addition, my Ph.D. projects also resulted in me performing several communications (mostly oral) in conferences linked with biomaterials, tissue regeneration, stem cell biology, or ageing, some of which comprised international meetings. Consequently, I have also acquired soft-skills, namely scientific writing, team-work and science communication.

Cardiac Tissue Engineering for Disease Modeling

Microenvironments for NewTherapies Group - Stem Cell Microenvironments in Repair/Regeneration Team (PI: P Pinto-do-Ó, PhD)Supervisor: Diana S. Nascimento, PhD (i3S/INEB)Co-supervisors: Perpétua Pinto-do-Ó, PhD (i3S/INEB, ICBAS) Lino Ferreira, PhD (CNC, Biocant)

Curricular Internship as Research Trainee at:Research Team: Stem-cell microenvironments in repair/regeneration (PI: P Pinto-do-Ó) from the Group: Microenvironments for NewTherapiesat INEB (Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica)Supervisors: Diana S Nascimento (PhD) & Vasco Sampaio-Pinto (MSc)Key Concepts:- Mammalian Heart- Cardiac Regeneration- Regeneration vs Repair Mechanisms- Extracellular Matrix- Neonatal Mouse Heart Injury Model: Apex Resection- C57BL/6 Mouse StrainLab Training:- Assisted in Neonatal Mouse Heart Apex Resection Surgery- Adult Mice Necropsy and Heart Harvesting- Some training in heart sectioning using a cryostat or a microtome (performed only a few times)- Histological Stainings: Hematoxylin & Eosin (HE) and Masson’s Trichrome (MT)- Immunofluorescence using Nuclei, Cardiac cell and Extracellular Matrix (ECM) markers in histological sections- Some training in Optical Microscopy- Some training in Fluorescence Microscopy- Some training in ImageJ

Voluntary Trainee at Thymus Development and Function Research Group- Immunology Concepts such as the cross talk between Thymocytes and Thymic Epithelial Cells (TECs)- Some training with techniques such as Stainings for Flow Cytometry, but with not much practice- Thymus digestions (mechanical and/or enzymatic) , although without much practice, only executed a few times- Observation of various techniques being performed by PhD students (Flow Cytometry, FACS, Mouse Embryo Dissection)

Voluntary trainee at Neurodevelopment and Degeneration group.Basic Drosophila melanogaster manipulation and genetics: crosses, larvae dissection, etc