João Lopes holds a Cell Biology PhD obtained in 2009 from University of Coimbra (Portugal), a 5-star QS Star Rating university, where he also graduated in Biology in 2003. During the PhD he was a visiting researcher at the University of California (Irvine, USA), under the supervision of Prof. Frank LaFerla, a world's top 2% most-cited scientist. In his PhD, João Lopes made important contributions to the study of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Prion encephalopathies (PRE), being the first to uncover the role of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 on the hyperphosphorylation of tau, triggering of apoptosis and abortive cell cycle re-entry that occur analogously in the neurodegeneration associated to both disorders. Building on the acquired expertise, in 2010 he joined the D3- Drug Discovery and Development department at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT, Genova, Italy), a top-50 research institution in Europe, as a post-doctoral researcher. At IIT, João Lopes explored the pharmacology behind the neuroprotective potential of two major anti-AD drugs, memantine and galantamine. Furthermore, he was part of the team involved in the development and testing of memoquin, a multi-target compound against AD. In 2012 he returned to Portugal and joined the Neuromodulation group (CNC/CIBB, Coimbra, Portugal), a leading group worldwide in the study of purinergic signaling in brain diseases headed by Prof. Rodrigo Cunha, another top 2% most cited scientist. First as a post-doc (supported by an FCT fellowship), from 2019 to 2023 hired as a Junior Researcher and presently as an Auxiliary Researcher (FCT’s 5th CEEC), he developed experimental work focused on the modulation of adenosine receptor activity as a neuroprotective mechanism against AD, although he also was involved in projects that addressed Parkinson's disease, Angelman syndrome and other brain disorders. João Lopes published 29 papers in international peer-reviewed journals (18 since 2018), and 2 book chapters. His h-index is 15, with the internationally refereed papers accumulating an impact factor of 141.7 and approximately 900 citations. João Lopes is 1st or corresponding author of 11 articles and senior author of 6 (5 within the last 2 years). Furthermore, over 80% of the publications were in journals within the first Quartile of their categories. From 2008 to 2009 he was Associate Editor of Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and is regularly invited as a reviewer by several high-impact international journals. His work has also been recognized through invited and selected oral presentations, having participated in international and national meetings both with oral and poster presentations. João Lopes supervised 1 graduation and 1 Master student and is currently the supervisor of a Master student and was tutor to several Medicine students (GAPI program). Since 2015 he lectured 9 classes to Master students at UC. João Lopes was the recipient of 2 FCT Fellowships (PhD Fellowship from 2005 to 2008 and Postdoc Fellowship from 2013 to 2019) and received 6 travel grants to participate in international meetings. He is accredited by DGAV as Coordinating Researcher (procedure and project design) for animal experimentation and has expertise in in vitro, ex-vivo and in vivo work, being proficient in electrophysiology, optogenetics, behavioral assessment, stereotaxic and peripheral administration of compounds, neuronal cell culture, cell viability assays, western blot, ELISA, immunocyto and immunohistochemistry, confocal and fluorescence microscopy, neuronal transfection, DNA and RNA extraction, PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis. His scientific areas of expertise are Adenosine research, Neurodegeneration, AD, Synaptic transmission and plasticity, Brain disorders and Pharmacology. Finally, it should be noted that his scientific activity was interrupted due to paternity in 2016 and 2018/19. Also, as consequence of a full proto-colectomy in July 2020 he was attributed a 60% disability quota.