Mélissa José is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Marine, Earth, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Algarve (Portugal), focusing on detecting, identifying, and mitigating biological contaminants in industrial microalgal cultures, integrated and financially supported by the Vertical Algas project (Pacto da Bioeconomia Azul). She holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Molecular and Microbial Biology (2023) and a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Biology (2020), both from the University of Algarve (Portugal). Her Master’s thesis emphasized on the detection and mitigation of biological contaminants responsible for the culture collapse of industrial microalgal cultures. This research was funded by the ALGAESOLUTIONS project, aiming to enhance algal products. During her academic journey, Mélissa developed expertise in molecular biology and bioinformatics, as well as strong skills in cultivating and microscopically characterizing microalgae and their biological contaminants. Mélissa entered the field of microalgae in 2020 as an intern at Necton S.A. (Belamandil, Portugal), and has been contributing to research as a technician in the contaminants and microbiome working group of GreenCoLab since 2021.