Joana Carvalho holds a PhD in Biomedicine (Univ. Porto 2012). She was a Post-Doc at the ERiC group at Ipatimup (2013-2018), and a Junior Researcher at i3S (2019-2024). Presently, she is an Assistant Researcher at i3S. Joana graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Coimbra in 2006, after spending one year as an ERASMUS student in Bergen, Norway. After graduating, Joana was a scientific research fellow (BTI) at the Cancer Genetics group at Ipatimup. In 2008, Joana was awarded two short-term fellowships, sponsored by the European Molecular Biology Organization and the Gulbenkian Foundation, to work at the Tumor Profiling Unit at the VuMC, Amsterdam. All these fellowships awarded Joana extensive experience in molecular and cellular biology techniques and were pivotal to the development of her capacity to lead projects independently. During her Ph.D. (2009-2012), Joana worked at Ipatimup, VuMC, and the University of Aveiro under the supervision of Dr. Carla Oliveira and the co-supervision of Dr. Beatriz Carvalho and Dr. Manuel Santos. Joana's PhD thesis highlighted microRNA-mediated mechanisms regulating E-cadherin expression in Gastric Cancer and revealed the impact of somatic CDH1 alterations in the prognosis and survival of Gastric Cancer patients. From 2013 to 2018, as a Post-doc researcher, Joana was particularly devoted to the study of extracellular vesicles in biological processes underlying cancer progression and metastasis and their value as tools to identify molecular signatures to monitor tumor relapse and/or treatment response of Gastric Cancer patients. During this time, Joana became a Member of the management committee of the European Network on Microvesicles and Exosomes on Health and Disease (COST Action BM1202), published together with other members two highly cited review papers, and participated in a European project. Joana is also the co-first author and co-last and corresponding author of original/opinion works on the field of extracellular vesicles. Remarkably, one of her original works was awarded the prestigious Pulido Valente Science 2020 Prize. Joana has also established a collaboration with a cancer hospital (IPOFG-Coimbra) to develop prospective studies with longitudinal and cross-sectional molecular analyses of extracellular vesicles and cell-free circulating tumor DNA isolated from plasma of cancer patients (gastric and colorectal) collected from diagnosis to follow-up. Currently, Joana is interested in studying the crosstalk between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment. In particular, she aims to dissect how oncogenic signaling affects such interactions, and how this crosstalk impacts disease progression and therapy resistance. To achieve this, she is mainly using organoid technology, animal models, and patient-derived material. During the last years, Joana has participated in twelve scientific projects, funded by distinct agencies and was the PI of one FCT-funded project (2023-2024). Joana supervised one MSc thesis and has been involved in the co-supervision of three PhD students (two ongoing and one completed), one MSc thesis, and several MSc, BSc students and MD trainees. Joana has also received several prizes in national and international conferences, participated as a jury examiner in several Master dissertations, and was a reviewer in peer-reviewed journals. Joana has an h-index of 19 and is a co-author of 32 peer-reviewed articles cited 6,417 times (Scopus total citations- February 2025) and four book chapters.