He is Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health (CIIS).
He graduated in Biology from the University of Aveiro in 2000, obtained a Master’s degree in Cell Biology from the University of Coimbra in 2003, and completed a PhD in Health Sciences, specialising in Biomedical Sciences, at the Portuguese Catholic University in 2012.

He is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP) in Viseu, teaching in the areas of Biochemistry, Physiology, Biomarkers and Molecular Mechanisms, and Computational Biology.

His main research interests focus on the identification of salivary biomarker panels through in silico studies using bioinformatics tools developed at SalivaTec (SalivaTecDB, OralInt and SalivaPrint Toolkit), followed by their validation using advanced expertise and state-of-the-art technology for protein identification in small volumes of saliva samples. He also conducts research on multi-omics data integration for Precision Dentistry.

He has participated in several competitively funded research projects, notably the “CovTec” project, for which he served as Principal Investigator and which validated saliva-based tests for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2. These tests are currently available as a clinical laboratory service at the University Dental Clinic Laboratory of the Portuguese Catholic University (ERS certification: 153243). In the same field, he led the project “SPRINT – Saliva for Precision Diagnosis”, aimed at developing new saliva-based tests for the non-invasive and personalised diagnosis and monitoring of prevalent oral diseases such as dental caries, periodontal disease and oral cancer, contributing to the advancement of Precision Dentistry and the improvement of Oral Health.