Sara is a Researcher at Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina (CBQF). Her research is focused on the development of innovative approaches to treat diabetes by creating a supportive environment for pancreatic beta cells to produce insulin, potentially improving the success of cell therapies for diabetes. Her academic journey started on 2002 at the University of Minho, with a graduation in Chemistry, which was concluded in 2007. During her graduation she participated in the Erasmus Program, where she had the opportunity to visit the University of Pardubice in the Czech Republic, for 5 months. In 2007 she started a Master degree course in Medicinal Chemistry (at the University of Minho), which she finished by 2009. In 2010 she started her research at 3B's Research group where she was enrolled in different projects (co)funded by EU, FP7, H2020. In 2015 she was awarded with an individual FCT PhD fellowship, starting her PhD on Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine and Stem cells (TERM&SC) at I3B's in collaboration with Ipatimup (Portugal). Her PhD work was focused on the development of 2D and 3D platforms to mimic the ECM of gastric cancer cells, and to study their invasive behavior mediated by the different molecular weights of hyaluronic acid. She has been also dedicated to the functionalization of 2D surfaces using different strategies, namely, using self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) for biosensing applications, as well as the synthesis of inorganic silica nanoparticles to induce osteogenic differentiation. She has been also dedicated to the development of a biocompatible cardiac patch for the regeneration and functional recovery of cardiac tissue. This latest subject gave her an approved FCT-funded Project as Principal Investigator (I-Care - Implantable 3D-bioprinted glycopeptide-based patch for Cardiac tissue Repair (2023.00076.RESTART)). As result of her research work, she is the author of a total of 21 full-length papers in ISI-indexed international peer-reviewed scientific journals, from which, 18 reported scientific results obtained by her and colleagues/collaborators, and 1 review papers. All the published papers are categorized in the Q1 of my scientific area. She also published 2 book chapters, 1 conference abstract, 11 oral communications in national/international meetings and 1 invited oral communication , 29 poster presentations and 2 oral-poster presentations. Sara recently became an invited peer-reviewer for the journal Crystals, having also an active role as a reviewer for different journals from the most reputed publishers, including Wiley, IOP Publisher, Springer Nature, American Chemical Society, The Royal Society of Chemistry. In addition, she has participated in several outreach activities, such as general public science dissemination. She had been part of the organizing committee of national and international meetings and integrated several projects funded by national and international agencies (EU, FP7 and H2020). She has been involved in the writing of several national and international R&D projects and on the execution of the research tasks associated with different projects, namely ones financed by National (e.g. FCT, ANI, etc.) and international funding agencies (e.g. FP7, H2020, M-Era-Net, etc.). Sara participated in the evaluation of scientific projects, namely from the H2020. Since September 2024 she is Invited assistant professor at the College of Biotechnology, Portuguese Catholic University of Porto (ESB-UCP).