Marcelina Cardoso Dos Santos

My PhD in optics and nanotechnology and my postdoc in biosensing were grounbreaking in determining the direction of my current areas of interest. They allowed me to acquire a strong expertise in nano-bio-photonics. My doctoral thesis in biophysics combined the training in cell biology acquired during my Master's degree with novel insights from the fields of optics and nanotechnology. During my PhD I studied cell adhesion in living cells as well as in biomimetic systems using a home-made set-up for quantitative fluorescence nanoscopy (Variable Angle Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy). I found the interdisciplinary research highly inspiring and, consequently, pursued a postdoctoral position in a physical chemistry laboratory. My postdoctoral research was focused on the development of new nanosensors to study intracellular interactions in cells and in vivo. In 2018 I was recruited as a permanent CEA researcher at I2BC. I joined "Cytoskeleton Dynamics and Motility" in 2020. In the laboratory, I initiated a new research topic entitled Focal Adhesion Biosensing. Thus, my interdisciplinary skills (biology - physics - chemistry) strengthened the biochemical expertise of my new team.