I graduated in Microbiology from the Escola Superior de Biotecnologia in my hometown of Porto, Portugal, in 1999. My first experience in a research environment was as an intern (1998-1999) in the UnIGENe research group at the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology in Porto, where I worked on Machado-Joseph disease, a neurological disorder.

As a doctoral fellow, I pursued my dream of unravelling the mechanisms of ageing by joining the Ageing and Stress Group at the University of Namur in Belgium. With the late Olivier Toussaint as my advisor, my work from 1999 to 2004 spanned molecular mechanisms of cellular senescence and responses to oxidative stress, evolutionary models of ageing, and analyses of gene networks.

Fascinated by the genome and by the opportunities its sequencing opened, I then did a postdoc from 2004 to 2008 with genomics pioneer George Church at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. Succinctly, we developed high-throughput approaches for studying ageing, including computational tools and databases, statistical models of mortality, methods for cell-based RNAi screens, and comparative genomics methods for investigating the evolution of longevity.

In 2008, I joined the University of Liverpool to establish my own group on genomic approaches to ageing. In 2022, I was recruited to the University of Birmingham to take on the post of Chair of Molecular Biogerontology. We are world-leaders in employing genomics and bioinformatics to study ageing with pioneering work in studying gene networks of ageing and in sequencing and analyzing genomes from long-lived species.

In our research activities we have established numerous national and international collaborations, including collaborations with clinicians, biotech companies and nonprofit organizations. Please browse this website for more information about our work and publications.