Manuela Machado is, nowadays, a Researcher at Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina (CBQF), a member of its Safety Committee, and the Researcher responsible for the Project Vertical Alimentar of the PRR-funded Pacto da Bioeconomia Azul project. In it, she manages the day-to-day interactions with industrial and academic partners and the overall technical and financial execution of the project. Throughout her research career, she has been involved in the development of agro-food-based solutions for the food and nutraceutical industries. This strong industrial focus is reflected in the participation in 4 industrial R&D projects and an additional 1 of a more fundamental nature. Additionally, this relation led to the creation of a functional canned tuna with EFSA-approved cardiovascular health-related allegations which is currently in commercialization. Analysis of her CV shows that her research efforts followed three main topics: i) Valorisation of agro-food byproducts in a circular economy context through the exploitation of their biological potential; ii) characterization of extracted compounds biological potential targeting desirable properties such as cellular metabolism and immune response modulation; iii) designing of delivery and formulation solutions for the usage and delivery of bioactive compounds. Author of 28 international peer-reviewed papers and 6 book chapters, of which she is the first author in 50% of them (14 papers and 3 book chapters). Additionally, she has also been Invited Editor in the Bioactive Lipids book published by Elsevier. According to Scopus (December 2023) she has been cited 189 times by 172 papers which resulted in an h-index of 6. Her main publication areas have been Agricultural and Biological Sciences followed by Biochemistry, Genetics, and Molecular Biology. She participated in 12 national and international conferences presenting 3 oral and 13 poster communications. She has tutored 4 visiting MSc students and various BSc students. Due to the high quality of her scientific work during her PhD research, she has been awarded the First Prize in the Mentorado Comendador Arménio Miranda by Frulact Academy.