I am the head of the Chromosome Dynamics lab and vice-director at Católica Biomedical Research Centre (CBR), and an Associate Professor at Católica Medical School. My undergraduate studies were in Biochemistry at the Faculdade de Ciências of the Universidade do Porto. My PhD, integrated into the Doctoral Programme in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine of CNC (Uni. Coimbra), was performed at Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular (IBMC), University of Porto, under the supervision of Prof. Claudio Sunkel and completed in 2007. My postdoctoral work was conducted at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, UK, under the supervision of Prof. Kim Nasmyth. In 2012 I started my independent research group, the Chromosome Dynamics lab, at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) in Oeiras, Portugal. Research in my laboratory aims to understand how mitotic chromosomes are assembled, how their structure impacts several processes involving the DNA molecule (e.g. transcription), and, ultimately, how failures in these processes impact mitotic fidelity, organism development and human disease. Our work has been funded by competitive grants and awards (~4MEUR), including an ERC Starting Grant, an ERC Consolidator Grant, an EMBO Installation Grant and a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant. I was elected an EMBO member in 2022.