Mariana Hinzmann is a post-doc researcher working at CIIMAR on the immunology of aquaculture species. She graduated in Biology in 2002 from U. Aveiro, where she also made her master's in Advanced Biomolecular Methods in 2005. She began her research studying microalgae, focus on toxic species involved in bivalve bioaccumulation processes. Subsequently, her work was carried out in the area of bivalves, initially freshwater bivalves, a highly endangered group, from a multidisciplinary perspective. In 2016 she obtained her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from U. Porto (bivalve immunology). Since then she has been working with marine species of fish and shellfish, linking diets and other stressors to immunity and overall health of the animals. Her main skills are microscopy (optical, electronic and fluorescence), biochemical analysis, microbiology, and molecular biology. She has a great passion for science communications, having already give lessons and presented outreach.