Carmen studied biotechnology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). During her master’s, she went abroad as an exchange student at the Technical University of Munich, where she developed her interest in microbiology and synthetic biology. After her exchange, Carmen decided to write her master’s thesis at the Centre of Molecular Inflammatory Research (CEMIR) at NTNU, where she explored bacterial virulence factors that potentially could induce cell death in macrophages, which can occur in advanced sepsis.

In 2021, Carmen was selected as one of the PhD candidates in the European joint doctorate programme CORVOS, which is funded by the European Commission under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. Under the supervision of Prof. Seppo Meri at the University of Helsinki and Prof. Cecilia Garlanda at Humanitas University, Carmen is currently investigating bacterial immune evasion mechanisms, as well as immune responses to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.