Diana Alves joined the Nanochemistry group at INL as a Research Fellow in February 2022. Her research will be focused on developing paint functional additives based on nanomaterials with hydrophobic properties.

She holds a master’s degree (2011) in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minho. During this period, she had the opportunity to spend 6 months at the University Medical Centre of Groningen and another 6 months at Innocore Pharmaceuticals, both in the Netherlands. Her PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering (2016), attributed to the University of Minho, was mainly focused on functionalizing biomaterials to impart them with antimicrobial properties and no cytotoxicity. During this period, she had the opportunity to spend 3 months at Messersmith Research Group, Northwestern University, USA. She was a postdoctoral researcher (2016-2018) and a Junior Researcher (2019-2021) at the Centre of Biological Engineering of the University of Minho, during which she worked on the encapsulation of bacteriophages in polymeric matrices to control food spoilage microorganisms and foodborne pathogens and on the development of an antimicrobial coating to impart the surfaces of endotracheal tubes with antimicrobial features, respectively.