Dr. Paola Mishal Handal Marquez

Dr. Paola Handal did her PhD at KU Leuven, Belgium, in the lab of Prof. dr. Vitor Bernardes Pinheiro. There, she developed strategies for the engineering of Xenobiotic Nucleic Acid (XNA) polymerases through Directed Evolution. In the Beltrao lab, she continues her scientific endeavour in de novo protein design, exploring computational and experimental approaches for engineering proteins with tailored binding specificities. Alongside this work, she investigates mutations that destabilize protein-protein interfaces or induce thermal sensitivity.