After receiving her PhD degree in Cell Biology from the University of Lisbon in 2008, Rita Fragoso moved to the United States of America where, from August 2008 to April 2013, has worked as postdoctoral research fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In 2013, Rita Fragoso returned to Portugal to join the laboratory of Professor Barata, at the Instituto of Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM), as a senior research fellow. Rita Fragoso is currently a “Investigador Auxiliar” (Research Assistant) at Prof. João T. Barata Lab at Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine -GIMM- (which resulted from the merger between Instituto de Medicina Molecular, where she previously worked, and Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência). During the last 10 years, Rita Fragoso has demonstrated the capacity to secure competitive funds to support her salary and to explore her independent lines of research. Rita Fragoso was awarded an FCT Investigator grant from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia -FCT- (covered her salary from January 2014 to December 2018 and included a starting grant), a TERRY FOX research grant from Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro (cycle 2015/2016) and a Breakthrough Idea Grant 2017 from iMM (co-applicant with João T. Barata). More recently she was awarded a CEEC Individual contract from FCT (Call 2018) to cover her salary during the years of 2020 - 2026 and has co-led with Prof. João T. Barata an ERC-PoC project funded by the European Research Council. She is currently the PI of a competitive Stage 2 CaixaImpulse Health Innovation grant awarded by laCaixa Foundation (call 2024). As a Research Assistant at Prof Barata Lab, Rita Fragoso has mentored 6 masters' students and 9 undergraduate students and has participated in advance training activities as invited evaluator of scientific projects, examiner of PhD and Master theses and member of PhD thesis advisory committees. She is currently mentoring one PhD student. She has further presented and discussed her work with peers in international scientific meetings and been actively engaged in Science Outreach events. Rita Fragoso has co-authored 19 papers in international peer-reviewed journals with over 1260 citations. Rita Fragoso scientific training and research has focused on advancing the knowledge on the mechanisms underlying leukemia pathogenesis in order to identify new therapeutic targets. In this regard, her studies in leukemogenesis have contributed to a better understanding of leukemia development and to the identification of putative therapeutic targets. Moreover, with the ultimate goal of developing more efficient and specific therapeutic approaches, Rita Fragoso started exploring a more therapeutic-applied line of research. In particular, she is exploring the differences between cancer and normal cells regarding their microRNA expression pattern to develop a gene therapy cell-death inducing system that identifies leukemia cells and triggers the death of those cells via activation of an cell death-inducing gene present in the gene therapy system. This innovative translational strategy, that she is currently exploring in T-ALL, has the potential to effectively address the lack of specificity in T-ALL therapy, improving the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors. Importantly, it has the potential to be applied in the development of personalized therapies and in other cancer types, or to other therapeutic indications that may benefit from the specific expression of certain effector genes/proteins. This line of research has undoubtedly a strong intellectual property (IP) (PCT filed in 2021) and technology transfer potential that Rita Fragoso wants to further explore, whether via a spin-off or another suitable exploitation and commercialization route.