Ana Margarida Carvalho holds a MSc in Bioengineering with a specialization in Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Porto (Faculdade de Engenharia & Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar). During her MSc, from February to July 2020, she enrolled in an Erasmus+ internship at the MERLN Institute, Maastricht University under the supervision of Dr Aart van Apeldoorn where she worked on comparing different drug strategies to improve the outcomes of clinical islet transplantation. In 2021, her MSc dissertation was carried out at i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde under the supervision of Dr Bruno Sarmento and Dr Rute Nunes and consisted of the development of a bioengineered pancreas using induced pluripotent stem cells to treat type 1 diabetes mellitus. After finishing her MSc, she was granted a Research Fellowship where she worked with nasal in vitro models to evaluate the cytotoxicity and bioavailability of nanomedicines.

Currently, Margarida is a PhD student in the International Doctoral Program in Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology Applied to Health Sciences (BiotechHealth) from Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, under the supervision of Dr Bruno Sarmento, Dr Cristina Barrias and Dr Ruchi Bansal (University of Twente). Her project is focused on the development of a 3D in vitro model of human liver fibrosis for evaluating antifibrotic nano-based drug delivery systems.

So far, she has published three review articles as the first author and has collaborated in one research article. Her research interests include biomaterials and tissue engineering, in vitro models of disease, and functionalized nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery. She is also very enthusiastic about Science Communication, and she is always eager to learn and share her knowledge with others.