INTERESTS I am interested in two main research areas: 1) the molecular mechanisms underlying CNS damage and repair; and 2) the development of new molecular tools and cell models of neurodegenerative disorders to test innovative therapeutic strategies. My expertise in cell signalling and cell models of disease allows me to collaborate actively with physicists, chemists, biologists and computational biologists in a wide diversity of fields beyond neurodegeneration, such as cancer, diabetes or radiation therapy. BIOSKETCH I obtained my PhD degree with highest honours (Cum Laude) in July 2005 and later awarded as the best PhD thesis presented at the Univ. of Oviedo (Spain) in 2006. In 2006, I moved to The Salk Institute (La Jolla, CA, USA) to receive postdoctoral training on neural stem cell research. I identified new phosphorylation pathways involved in the control of neural precursor cell differentiation to neurons and glia by high-throughput proteomics. My findings have important implications for CNS pathologies involving reactive gliosis, such as neurodegenerative disorders, stroke, spinal cord injury or diabetic retinopathy. This work was awarded the very competitive Pioneer Postdoctoral Scholar Award (The Salk Institute) and funding from the Bundy Foundation for Alzheimer´s Research. In 2009, I was awarded a Portuguese postdoctoral fellowship (ranking position: 13/114) to work on Huntington´s disease at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM, Lisbon, Portugal). I interrupted this fellowship between February and December 2012, to develop novel cellular models of neurodegenerative disorders based on bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays at the Campus of International Excellence (CIE-UO, Oviedo, Spain). I have successfully applied them to identify genetic and non-genetic determinants of oligomerization, aggregation and toxicity of neurodegeneration-related proteins (HTT, Tau, GFAP,...), which had ample recognition in the form of citations, fellowships and grants. In January 2014, I was awarded a very competitive (7% success rate) Investigator FCT contract-grant to start my own laboratory at the Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica e Biologica (ITQB NOVA, Oeiras, Portugal), and in 2019 I moved to my current position as an Auxiliary Professor at the Faculty of Sciences (Univ. of Lisbon). Tenure in 2023. I have raised ~700K euros in funds as a principal investigator and ~750K euros as a team member, and I am part of large European consortia (COST, Twinning, ~2 Million euros). BIBLIOMETRICS Since my first article in 2001, I delivered a total of 56 scientific reports (48 research articles, 6 reviews, 2 book chapters; 39 in Q1 journals; 11 as a last/corresponding author; 14 as first author; 13 as a second author; 23 as a co-author), cited >5300 times (Google Scholar), >3600 (Scopus)and >3300 (WoS)(H factor: 30, 24 and 23, respectively). With or without my PhD supervisor, I published in high IF journals within my field, such as Nature Comm. (IF: 14.919), Cell Death Diff. (IF: 9.050), Cancer Res. (IF: 8.234), J. Pineal Res. (IF: 9.600), Cells (IF: 6.600) or Hum. Mol. Gen. (IF: 6.393). Our review in J Pineal Res (2004) remains one of the most cited papers of the history of the journal. OTHER SCIENTIFIC AND ACADEMIC OUTPUTS I have contributed >60 oral presentations/invited talks and >80 poster communications in national and international meetings. I am a scientific reviewer for various international journals (Quartile 1): Blood (IF: 23.63), J. Mol. Biol. (IF: 5.47), Frontiers journals (IF>5), Toxicol. Sci. (IF: 3.85), Metallomics (IF: 3.79), PLoS One (IF: 3.23), and various MDPI journals (IF>6), among others. I have been the jury for 29 MSc thesis and 16 PhD thesis, and participated in 9 PhD committees to evaluate the yearly advance of students. I have supervised 3 postdoctoral researchers, 3 technicians, 12 PhD students (9 ongoing), 4 visiting PhD students, 30 MSc students (8 ongoing), and 12 undergraduate students.