I am a Junior Researcher at CINTESIS (Universidade do Algarve, Portugal). Research Interests | I use Computational Biology as a way of answering biologically relevant questions. My research interests are focused on understanding how gene expression profiles translate into robust genetic modules that explain the phenotypic plasticity observed in healthy and diseased cells, particularly cancer. I am passionate about Open Science and I am always keen on establishing new collaborations. Current Project | I am starting my independent research line studying cancer causality using Structural Causal Models. Previous Research | I have experience with OMICs datasets, which I have used to study breast cancer, genetic regulation in early vertebrate embryo development, in stem cell differentiation, and in mitochondrial evolution. Teaching | I teach Computational Biology at the Universidade do Algarve, and I organize yearly courses on R programming.  Expertise | Cancer genetics, Molecular oncology, R programming (including package development), OMICS data analysis.

Our lab uses genetically modified mouse models and a combination of cell biology, molecular biology, and biochemistry techniques to study the role of altered mitochondrial dysfunction and metabolism in human diseases. A primary analytical tool of the group is metabolomics, which enables the parallel quantification of hundreds of small molecule metabolites. The team also uses computational approaches to integrate datasets from multi-dimensional analyses, including metabolomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics, with the aim to model aging-related disorders and to generate mechanistic hypotheses that will be cross validated experimentally.