Joana Ferreira graduated in Biology in 2006 from the University of Coimbra (UC) and completed her PhD in Biosciences, specialty Neurosciences (UC) in 2012, under the co-supervision of Ana Luísa Carvalho at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC, Portugal) and Ann Marie Craig at the Center for Brain Health (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada). After completing her PhD, she successfully obtained a postdoctoral fellowship to complete her studies on the molecular mechanisms of traffic of glutamate receptors at CNC. In 2016 she joined the group of Laurent Groc, at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience (IINS, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, France), to explore the regulation of the nanoscale distribution of NMDA receptors (NMDARs). In 2021 she joined the CNC-UC as an Assistant Investigator, funded by the competitive scientific employment call of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) to start her independent line of research on the nanoscale architecture of the synapse, trans-synaptic signaling and its implications for neurological diseases. Recently, she was appointed the Principal Investigator (PI) position at the Multidisciplinary Institute of Ageing (MIA) to lead the Synapse Architecture group. She has extensive and recognized experience in molecular imaging of NMDARs and their interactors and a broad background in molecular neuroscience, with specific training in single-molecule localization super-resolution microscopy techniques. She has achieved a successful track record: 10 publications as first- or co-first-author in high-impact peer-review reference journals, including Neuron and PNAS, out of a total of 20 publications, 2 of them as co-corresponding-author. She has a large supervising experience (4 Master's thesis students; 2 scientific projects graduation students; 1 Erasmus+ Master’s student, 11 research internships, and 3 PhD laboratory work mentoring). She has participated twice as an instructor at the CAJAL Advanced Neuroscience Training Program in Bordeaux (2015 & 2023), as a lecturer in several advanced courses from the PhD Program in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine (PDBEB), and as a teacher in the Molecular Biology course from the Master Program of the University of Coimbra (UC) and the Neurobiology course from the Biomedical Sciences Graduation program from the University of Algarve. She was invited as the main opponent of 2 PhD and 2 MSc theses, as a jury member by the Bordeaux International Neuroscience Master Program and the Molecular Biology Master Program of the UC, and for 2 PhD thesis committees of Nova Lisbon University and UC. She has successfully organized 2 international symposiums (2017 and 2023 FENS Regional Meetings), a workshop at one of the biggest microscopy schools in Europe (MiFoBio 2018, France), and two advanced courses for PhD students (Advanced Imaging, 2022, PDBEB, UC and Neuroscience meets society: transversal skills for future neuroscientists). She is the PI of 2 international (IBRO Return Home Fellowship and 2021 Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Grant) and 1 national grant (FCT), co-PI in a consortium project funded by La Caixa Foundation Health Research 2020, and has participated in 8 funded research projects, >20 international scientific meetings, 8 of them as an invited speaker. In 2022 she received a Special Recognition in Science from the World Cultural Council (WCC) and the UC and was nominated as a Jeanne Marie Lee Investigator by the BBRF Research Partners Program.