Carina has over 15 years of experience in advanced optical microscopy and single-molecule biophysics. After finishing her studies in Biology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, she did her PhD and first postdoc at the European Laboratory of Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS) in Florence, Italy. At LENS she combined dual optical tweezers, fluorescence imaging and microfluidics to study gene expression and regulation at the single-molecule level. Then she moved to University of Oxford and King's College London for a postdoc in optics, biophysics and electrophysiology in synthetic mimics of the cell membrane, studying how proteins (toxins) assemble into large complexes to form pores and kill host cells. At Oxford, Carina built several bespoke fluorescence microscopes suitable for epifluorescence, TIRF microscopy, polarisation, FRAP, smFRET and live cell applications. In 2017, Carina started working as assistant manager in the microscopy core facility of Biochemistry Department in Oxford University, called Micron Advanced Bioimaging Unit. At Micron, Carina was running the daily activities of a core imaging facility, providing training and scientific advice to researchers and maintaining 15 microscopes, including widefield, confocal, lightsheet and super resolution techniques. Carina organised and taught in multiple microscopy courses on Optical Microscopy.  Carina  particularly enjoys sharing her knowledge and help researchers deepen their understanding of microscopy. She enjoys assisting with imaging challenges, experiment design, image acquisition and analysis. In 2022, Carina moved to Faro to implement the Imaging Platform at CCMAR.