I am the Principal Investigator of the Neuronal growth and plasticity Lab at NOVA Medical School (NMS) since 2015, and Tenure Assistant Professor since 2024. Our aim is to dissect how neurons and glia integrate 3D information from intrinsic and extrinsic factors to orchestrate the formation of new synaptic structures. I graduated in Applied Chemistry from NOVA University of Lisbon in 1998, and in that same year I was selected for the Gulbenkian PhD Program in Biology and Medicine. RESEARCH TRAJECTORY: The Gulbenkian PhD Program opened the doors to my academic career that took me across the world, for a PhD with Dr. Patrick O’Farrell at the University of California San Francisco, where I discovered how nitric oxide promotes survival during hypoxia in Drosophila (EMBO J. and selected as Science magazine Editor’s Choice, 2003). I obtained my PhD in the year of 2004 in Biomedicine. To pursue my journey and long-standing interest in understanding how cells respond to the external environment, I moved to Harvard Medical School for postdoctoral training with Dr. Thomas Schwarz (2004-2014). I focused on studying how neurons and the intracellular trafficking machinery sensed synaptic activity to change neuronal structure. This research led to 1st author publications in Q1 journals like Development and EMBO Journal where we uncovered details of how RalA and the exocyst complex regulate growth and plasticity in Drosophila and in mammalian neurons. During my postdoc, I secured a competitive individual postdoctoral fellowship from FCT (2004) and received an Eleanor Milles Career Development grant from Harvard to support my path to independence (2008). While at Harvard, I attended an advanced course on Lab leadership and had the opportunity to supervise over 12 students. Altogether, between PhD and postdoc I trained abroad for 14 years in top world universities, where I acquired research SKILLS in biochemistry, developmental and cell biology, molecular neuroscience, genetics, tutoring and leadership. In 2015, I returned to Portugal securing my salary competitively (FCT investigator program), starting my lab at NMS. I recruited 3Ms students which helped me build a lab from scratch. Since then, I fostered the integration of many students having supervised to completion 18 Ms students (plus 6 as co-supervisor), 6PhD students (3 as co-supervisor), and 30+ internships. Currently, I supervise 2PhD, 4Ms, and 1BSc students. As a PI, I have secured FUNDING for the lab and established multiple collaborations (details in the next section). One of our research lines addressed how the RalA/exocyst pathway is required for neurodevelopment, work published in Science Matters (2018) and Development (2020). In 2017 we started a new line of research, more focused on intercellular interactions and biophysical properties of neurons, which led to the discovery that structural plasticity is regulated by a mechanism used by cancer cells to invade tissues but never reported in neurons, called membrane blebbing (Nature communications, 2023), and that this process was coupled to muscle contraction. Both these lines of investigation together with my previous experience have strengthen my capacity to lead this project on molecular neuroscience and structural plasticity. Overall, my path reflects my dedication to science and neuroplasticity in particular - I look forward to continuing to make meaningful contributions to this field. I had 2 maternity leaves (2007, 2014).