MMM Santos graduated in Applied Chemistry (Organic Chemistry) at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the New University of Lisbon in 1999. After a short period at the University Paris-Sud XI (Orsay, France) working in catalysis, she started a PhD in the field of Indolocarbazole synthesis at Ana Lobo’s research group (New University of Lisbon, 2000-2004). In 2004, she was awarded a post-doctoral FCT fellowship to work in asymmetric synthesis of alkaloids at the Amat-Bosch’s research group (University of Barcelona, Spain). In 2006, she shifted her research focus to medicinal chemistry and returned to Portugal for a post doc at the group of Rui Moreira of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon (FFUL). Her independent career started in 2008, when she was hired as Assistant Researcher at FFUL through the international tender Ciência 2007 programme. In 2013, she was awarded a FCT investigator grant (Assistant Investigator) and in 2018 a CEEC individual grant (Principal Investigator). Since 2023, MMM Santos is associate professor at the Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medicines Department of FFUL. The ultimate goal of her research group is the development of new biologically active scaffolds, with adequate pharmacological properties, to target important therapeutic targets (e.g. p53, NMDA receptors, cysteine proteases) and diseases (e.g. cancer, malaria).