Daniela Gabriel was awarded a degree in Plant Biology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1999, with an Undergraduate thesis on Genetic transformation of rice.
She joined the University of the Azores in 2002, to conduct research in classical and molecular taxonomy of Red Algae, and, since 2005, has been collaborating with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In 2008, after defending her PhD thesis on the phylogeny of the Nemastomatales, she worked for the Azorean Government developing Outreach and Education projects throughout the archipelago.

From 2011 to 2019, she developed posdoctoral research with CIBIO (Azores and Porto branches) and the Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC) focused on the phylogeny of the red algae belonging to the Peyssonneliales. She is now a Junior Researcher at CIBIO, studying morphological and developmental features that help distinguishing the members of species-complexes, especially among algae involving alternation of generation between gelatinous and crustose phases. Her other areas of interest are biodiversity and ecological monitoring.
Dr Gabriel keeps active collaboration with her past colleagues, resulting in an international network that provides a multitude of samples, data and expertise. Dr Gabriel also continues to contribute with the Regional Science Museums Network in different activities.