José Duarte Gomes Dias graduated in Biochemistry (School of Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal) in 2022. The final BSc project was conducted at the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS) under the supervision of Joana Silva (PhD) and consisted of exploring the potential role of cannabidiol as a therapy for Alzheimer's disease. JDD was enrolled in the MSc program in Health Sciences at the School of Medicine, University of Minho. The project was developed at ICVS, under the supervision of João Filipe Oliveira (PhD), which aimed to explore the role of astrocytic metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 in depressive-like behavior. During this time, JDD developed technical skills in genetic recombination techniques in transgenic rodent models, behavior, and molecular analysis, namely immunohistochemistry. JDD published one review as first author, and contributed to two other works. Currently, JDD is a research fellow at João Filipe Oliveira's laboratory, under the project "Neuron-astrocyte signaling in depression: learning from astrocytes how to effectively treat depression".