He is a member of the Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology (MCISB), the Machine Learning and Optimization (MLO) group.

Mendes did his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Lisbon.

He then moved to the UK and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from Aberystwyth University in 1994 for work on computer simulation of metabolic pathways.

He moved to the University of Manchester as Professor in 2007, while still keeping a 20% appointment in the VBI until the end of 2013.

From July 2016 he transitioned to a full time position at the University of Connecticut Health Center as Professor of Cell Biology.