My name is Mariana and I’m a first-year PhD student at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC) in Portugal. I got my degree in molecular biology in 2017. In 2019 I obtained my master’s degree in molecular medicine and oncology. As an undergrad, I studied nanoparticle-based therapeutic options for breast cancer and cancer stem cells at the Cancer Drug Resistance lab in i3s, Porto. In 2021, I joined the Genome Maintenance and Evolution lab as a PhD student, supervised by Dr. Marco Fumasoni. I’m broadly interested in the field of evolutionary biology and using experimental evolution as a tool to uncover complex molecular mechanisms of adaptation. My current work focuses on understanding the role of nutrient-sensing during the evolutionary adaptation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.