She graduated with a BSc. and licenciatura in Chemistry from FCUL and obtained her PhD. in Biochemistry (1995) from Universidade de Lisboa. She was a post-doctoral researcher at the Division of Toxicology of the Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research, Leiden University, The Netherlands from 1996 to 1997. Her areas of expertise are redox regulation and signaling, oxidative stress, thiol biochemistry, biological adaptation and enzyme kinetics.