Cassilda Pereira (CP) obtained her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences with specialization in Biochemistry from faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Coimbra in 2016. She is an Invited Assistant Professor at School of Health, Polytechnic University of Porto (ESS|P.PORTO) in the Biochemistry and Biotechnology fields and an Integrated Researcher at Center for Translational Health and Medical Biotechnology Research (TBIO), a part of the Health Research Network (RISE-Health). She has a solid background in cellular biology, biochemistry, cell signalling pathways, cellular microbiology and toxin biology, both in vivo and in cellular models. Overall, CP published 11 papers in international peer-reviewed journals with a total of 288 citations and an average IF=5.5. CP has been a researcher/team member of 10 competitive projects grants (FCT), contributed for the scientific training of 3 MSc students and established fruitfull collaborations. Her PhD work at CNC (University of Coimbra, PT) provided new insights into the role of nitrite-derived nitric oxide in mammalian gastric physiology and the biological functions of wine polyphenols regarding cellular regulation and anti-inflammatory actions using in vitro and in vivo models. This work resulted in 5 papers, 2 as 1st author. Later in 2016, CP joined the Fish Immunology and Vaccinology (FIV) group at IBMC/i3S (Porto, PT), as a postdoctoral researcher to work with AIP56, an AB toxin that is a key virulence factor from Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida (Phdp) and targets NF-kB in mammalian cells. At the FIV group, CP improved her expertise in cell biology, applied to the cellular microbiology field and developed strong knowledge on AB toxins, particularly AIP56, and on other virulence factors. CP greatly contributed to i) the identification of the cellular processes and molecular mechanisms involved in AIP56 intoxication in mammalian cells (2 papers, 1 as 1st author); ii) the characterization of the structural features involved in AIP56 intoxication (Nature Commun., 2nd author); iii) the identification and characterization of other virulence factors from Phdp, particularly proteins secreted by the type II secretion system (T2SS) (2 papers as 2nd author). In 2020, CP attained a contract as a Junior researcher at i3S to study the positive impact of cardiac fibroblasts (CF) on cardiac regeneration and identify essential mediators in this process. This clear change of fields allowed CP to gather a new set of skills and experience and has resulted, so far, in 1 paper as 2nd author and the co-supervision of 1 MSc student. CP research work has been disseminated through the participation in national and internacional scientific conferences, 30 conference posters/oral communications and 7 published conference abstracts. Currently, at TBIO-RISE Health, CP’s scientific interest is to characterize the modulation of cellular pathways by bioactive compounds with biotechnological potential. CP is committed to science communication and outreach through the organization/participation of scientific events for the community such as “Ciência Viva” and “ESS | P.Porto Sexta aberta” activities.