Nuno dos Santos graduated in Aquatic Sciences by the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Portugal. He obtained his PhD from the University of Wageningen, The Netherlands, in 2000, having its dissertation versed on the development of immunity in sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, L.) with the aim of developing an effective vaccine against the bacterium Photobacterium damselae piscicide (Phdp). Result of work started during the PhD, he established collaboration with the company Aqua Health Limited, later acquired by Novartis Animal Health, with which continued collaboration to develop vaccines against Nodavirus and Phdp, two of the most devastating diseases affecting temperate and warm salt water fish species. In 2004 he established the research group Fish Immunology and Vaccinology at the Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, University of Porto, Portugal, a group that is leading ever since. The group's main objective is the study of host-pathogen interaction, and it has been manly focusing their research in studying the structural and functional characterization of an AB-type toxin produced by Phdp, named AIP56 (Apoptosis Inducing Protein of 56 kDa), which induces selective apoptosis of macrophages and neutrophils by inactivating the p65 subunit of NF-kB. His main interests are thus related to the area of host-pathogen interaction, particularly bacterial toxins and the response they trigger in the host, and in a broader range the fields of microbiology, immunology and molecular and cell biology.