In 1987 I graduated on Biochemistry at University of Porto, Portugal. I worked as a research fellow at the Centre for Experimental Cytology (Porto) and also did my PhD there with Manuel T. Silva as supervisor and Rui Appelberg as co-supervisor, on Mycobacterium avium - macrophage interplay in a mouse model of infection. I completed my PhD in 1997 and then paused my research activity for some years as my children were born and I wanted to be more present. From 2001-2004 I worked on a post-doc project about the effects of mercury exposure on the activity of sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) macrophages, at IBMC - Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular (Porto). At the end of 2004 I was admitted as an Assistant Professor at University Fernando Pessoa (Porto) and at 2006 I started working in Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis and Crohn's disease, particularly at the level of mycobacterium-macrophage interaction. From 2009-2012 I was principal investigator in a research project entitled "Mycobacterial infection in Crohn's disease". The results are included in four published papers.