Manuela Colla Carvalheiro is currently Research Assistant in the Department of Pharmacy, Pharmacology and Health Technologies at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, and researcher of the Advanced Technologies for Drug Delivery Group (@DD) of the Research Institute for Medicines (iMed.ULisboa). She has been working in the design, development, and biological evaluation of Nanoparticulate Lipid-Based systems for the in vivo delivery of new chemical entities, already established chemotherapeutics and genetic drugs. The aim is to increase the therapeutic efficacy of the loaded drug, reduce their toxicity, and allow drug release at the specific site in a controlled manner. Research activity has been dedicated to the development and optimization of cost-effective lipid-based nanocarriers (liposomes, ethosomes, ultra-deformable vesicles, SLN, NLC), for selective intracellular macrophage delivery of active drugs for the treatment of Leishmania related infections exploring non-invasive routes of administration. Her work on drug delivery includes development of cells-based in vitro bioassays to assess the performance of colloidal systems in mammalian cells (cytotoxicity and internalization studies) and Leishmania parasites (susceptibility analysis of novel drugs molecules). Development of animal models for evaluation of therapeutic activity of human diseases. Currently her efforts are also directed towards the valorization of agri-food by-products through their incorporation in dermal formulations.