I initiated this ‘Research journey’ on the second year of my BSc degree in Biology (2010 to 2013) at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto (Portugal), as a volunteer in the Bioengineering & Synthetic Microbiology (BSM) group at IBMC. I then started my internship within the BSc degree, in the subject “Characterization of seven strains of cyanobacteria isolated from the Portuguese coast”, at the aforementioned research group. Later (2013 to 2015), I enrolled into MSc studies in Cell and Molecular Biology (Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto). My Master’s dissertation carried out in the BSM group focused on “New tools for biotechnology: Signal peptides for selected protein secretion". I also worked as a Medical Laboratory Assistant at the Department of Microbiology in Royal Stoke University Hospital, United Kingdom (2016/2017). Currently, I am a PhD student in the MCbiology doctoral programme (ICBAS, University of Porto, Portugal)) working on the project "CyanoEV, characterizing Cyanobacterial Extracellular Vesicles, envisioning technological applications" (FCT grant SFRH/BD/130478/2017) (since Jan 2018).