Catarina Pinto completed her Integrated Master’s degree in Biological Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico in 2012 and subsequently joined Isabel Gordo’s Evolutionary Biology Lab at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC) as a research fellow. There, she studied antibiotic resistance and bacterial growth dynamics, gaining expertise in microbiology, genetic engineering, molecular biology, functional genomics, and in vivo experimentation.
In 2016, she joined Karina Xavier’s Bacterial Signalling Lab at IGC, where she studied gut microbiota and metabolic profiles. In 2017, she moved to Sara Magalhães’ Lab at FCUL as Laboratory Manager, contributing to the development and standardisation of spider mite colony management protocols and supporting the lab’s research activities.
Since 2019, Catarina has been part of Cláudia Nunes dos Santos’ Lab, initially as Laboratory Manager before transitioning to full-time research in 2021. In 2023, she began her PhD in Health Sciences at NMS-NOVA, focusing on the impact of (poly)phenol metabolites on the intestinal microbiome and inflammation.