Carla P. Gomes was awarded an FCT fellowship in 2012 (ranked 3/112 in her scientific area) to pursue her Ph.D. studies in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Porto, where she worked on the development of functionalized nanoparticles (NPs) to mediate targeted gene delivery to peripheral neurons. Among other accomplishments, her Ph.D. project resulted in the first report showing an improvement of nerve regeneration as a result of a gene therapy treatment mediated by a non-viral vector. In 2014, she independently started a collaboration with Peter Hinterdorfer (Linz, Austria), where she established Atomic Force Microscopy as a tool to assess the specificity of targeted NPs in biological models of high complexity without the need for animal testing. She finished her Ph.D. in 2017 with a very productive track record: 8 original publications (3 of them as the first author) in Q1 international peer-reviewed journals, being two of them ranked top 5% in their field. In 2016 she was elected for a position at Carmo-Fonseca's Lab (Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon). As a Post-Doctoral fellow, she was dedicated to the identification of long non-coding RNAs with possible therapeutic roles in aggressive triple-negative human breast cancer. This work resulted in 1 additional first-author publication. To pursue the interest in cancer research she acquired while at iMM, in 2019 she was awarded a junior researcher position at José Carlos Machado Lab (i3S, Porto), working to unravel the origin and mechanisms of activation of tumor-infiltrating regulatory T cells. Overall, she has participated in 6 Research Projects with a total of 14 publications (11 original papers, 2 reviews, and 1 book chapter), 185 citations, and an H-index of 8. Carla's work has been presented in several international conferences (15 abstracts selected for oral communication, 6 of them presented by her, and 18 poster presentations). She has also published 6 Conference Abstracts in peer-reviewed proceedings. Moreover, she contributed to the scientific planning and writing of 4 research projects for national grant applications and participated in the writing of an H2020-MSCA-ITN European proposal. She has also experience in mentoring/supervising Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D. students, having 3 master thesis graduated under her co-supervision. Alongside her research activities, Carla is vice-rep of the i3S Postdoctoral Researchers Representatives since 2019 (representing a community of >200 researchers) where, besides improving several transferable skills such as communication and leadership, she has been involved in the preparation of institutional documents (e.g. career development and mentorship guidelines). She is also a member of the founding team of the i3S Green Lab Initiative (started in 2020). She was a member of the organizing committee of an international meeting (2015) and has participated in several outreach activities, such as general public science dissemination and visits to local elementary schools to promote science education.