He has a diverse and extensive professional experience in the field of chemistry. In 1999/2000, he undertook his final year research project in reaction kinetics and mechanistics at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, under the supervision of Professor Lídia Miguel Pinho Chumbinho de Albuquerque and Professor Maria Luísa Calisto de Jesus Moita, earning a mark of 19/20. During this time, he gained experience in conductimetry and multiparametric analysis. In 2001/2002, he conducted a research project on the reactivity of DNA codified amino acids analogues at the School of Sciences, University of Minho, Portugal, supervised by Professor Hernâni Maia, and gained expertise in reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). From 2003 to 2008, he pursued a PhD in Analytical Chemistry, focusing on mass spectrometry applied to the study of the Maillard reaction at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, under the supervision of Professor Maria Helena Florêncio and co-supervision of Professor Carlos Borges. He developed skills in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and hyphenated techniques such as LC-MS and GC-MS. In 2008/2009, he conducted post-doctoral studies in Molecular Biophysics at the Department of Chemistry, Cambridge University, UK, under the supervision of Dr. Sophie E. Jackson, where he worked with ESI-MS (Q-TOF), absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism, isothermal titration calorimetry, capillary electrophoresis, cell culture, and protein purification systems. From 2011 to 2016, he engaged in post-doctoral studies in photochemistry at the Center for Structural Chemistry, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, focusing on the structural and dynamic characterization of early stages in alpha-synuclein fibrillation in the presence of mannosylglycerate, under the supervision of Professor António L. Maçanita
Awards and Honours
He has received numerous grants and honors throughout his career. In 2000, he was awarded the Curricular grant PRODEP III/Measure 3/Action 3.2 from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, for a duration of three months. He then received a PhD grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal, under the reference SFRH/BD/3162/2000. Following his PhD, he was granted a post-doctoral fellowship by the FCT under the reference SFRH/BPD/37016/2007. Later, he received another post-doctoral grant from the Mass Spectrometry National Network (RNEM), Portugal, with the reference RNEM/DGH/022125 in 2018. His professional recognition includes an invitation to become a member of the Royal Society of Medicine (United Kingdom) in 2022. In 2023, he was selected for the “International Young Scientist Awards” under the category of “Best Researcher Award” and was also nominated for Full Membership in Sigma Xi (USA).
Research Interests
His research interests are focused on the study of reaction processes in solution, particularly through the identification, characterization, and monitoring of species formed in physiologically relevant reaction mixtures. He primarily investigates the reaction of specific amine targets with α-dicarbonyls, a key aspect of the Maillard reaction. Additionally, he is interested in probing the fundamentals of electrospray ionization (ESI) mechanisms, exploring the fundamental aspects of ESI mass spectrometric techniques. He is also gaining interests in molecular biophysics, particularly in the study of molecular chaperone systems and α-synuclein, utilizing advanced spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques.