Paula is currently a Junior researcher at Cenimat|i3N, in the Materials Science Department of the NOVA School of Sciences & Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. Paula is a member of the Biomaterials group, led by Prof. João Paulo Borges. Her main scientific activities are focused on the development of multifunctional magnetic devices for biomedical applications, namely magnetic hyperthermia, magnetic resonance imaging, and controlled drug delivery systems. She has published 21 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 3 book chapters. Paula also supervises students during their Master thesis (18 as supervisor and 20 as co-supervisor) and Ph.D. thesis (3 as a supervisor, 2 as co-supervisor), and give support to theorical and lab classes in the department, mainly Biomaterials and Introduction to biomaterials. Paula is also the coordinator of the curricular units “Biomaterials and Nanomedicine” and “Medical imaging and theranostics”. Paula received her Master degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa in 2009. She worked as a Pharmacist in a community pharmacy for two and a half years where her main activities were related to customer service, recipes monitoring and vaccine administration. In 2012, Paula started her Ph.D. in Nanotechnologies and Nanosciences at Cenimat, supervised by Professor João Paulo Borges, Prof. Isabel Ferreira, and Prof. Dr. Carlos Novo from IHMT. Her Ph.D. work focused on the development of multifunctional nanoparticles suitable for cancer theranostics. More specifically, Paula extensively studied the synthesis and stabilization of iron oxide nanoparticles, their coating with a biopolymer, chitosan, and the application of these multifunctional nanoparticles in the biomedical field: magnetic hyperthermia, controlled drug delivery systems, and magnetic resonance imaging. 

Since 2017, Paula is the Principal Investigator of a National Research Project, DREaMM (Ref. PTDC/CTM- REF/30623/2017, 238,421.63 €), which focus on the development of dual-stimuli responsive magnetic membranes for cancer theranostics application. In 2020, she was also funded in Programa Pessoa – Translational Cooperation between Portugal and France in collaboration with Dr. Sebastian Blanquer from the Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, France. The project focus on the development of magnetic-responsive 3D printed scaffolds. She is also a member of the research team of project Search-AnD-see (Ref. PTDC/BTM-MAT/2472/2021), NanoCell2SEC (Ref. PTDC/CTM- REF/30529/2017) and InPaCTus a co-promotion project by “The Navigator Company” (Raiz, Coimbra University and Aveiro University). Paula develops her research work in collaboration with colleagues from CENIMAT|i3N and international research teams in parallel projects (IMM and CEDOC in Lisbon, CSIC in Madrid, Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, Université de Montpellier in France, and UMCU in The Netherlands).

In 2020, Paula was awarded a Junior Research Contract under the Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus - 3rd Edition sponsored by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.

Paula´s main research interests are related to development of new multifunctional magnetic systems for cancer theranostics application including magnetic hyperthermia, MRI and drug delivery. Other interests also include thermoresponsive microgels and colloidal electrospinning to produce multi-stimuli responsive magnetic membranes.