Sofia M. Calado finished her PhD in Biomedical Sciences, at the University of Algarve, in 2016. Her research focused on the identification of molecular mechanisms and development of gene therapy strategies for diabetic retinopathy. During her PhD, she had the privilege of doing an internship in Dr Constance Cepko’s Lab, at Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA) and doing an international stay of one year in Dr Shomi Bhattacharya’s Lab, CABIMER (Seville, Spain). From 2016 to 2019, Sofia did her postdoc, within the EYE-RISK European Consortium, funded by the Horizon 2020 Initiative, under the supervision of Dr. Shomi Bhattacharya, at CABIMER. During the postdoc, Sofia dedicated her work in the development of patient-specific diseases models based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), for the identification of molecular mechanisms of disease and development of cellular therapies. She joined the University of Algarve in 2019, as a researcher of the FCT-funded project VITAL, headed by Dr José Bragança and, in 2021, she was awarded with a FCT CEEC Ind to start working as an independent researcher, at Algarve Biomedical Center Research Institute (ABC-Ri). In 2022, she integrated the ABC Co-Lab team and, since 2023, she is the head of the Flow Cytometry Unit of ABC-Ri. Given her interest in advanced therapies, in 2022, Sofia finished a Master in Manufacturing of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products, conferred by the University of Granada, in collaboration with the Red Andaluza de Diseño y Translación de Terapias Avanzadas. She has been deeply committed to attracting funding. Sofia has participated in 16 research projects (both national and international), 1 as Principal Investigator (PI), 2 as Co-PI, and 13 as team member. Sofia M. Calado have published 31 scientific papers, including 7 as first author, 2 as corresponding author, and one cover for a journal, resulting more than 1100 citations and a h-index of 14 (Google Scholar). She was involved in the organization of 7 (inter)national events, including the 2023 FENS Regional Meeting and has presented her work in several international conferences (27 posters; 3 oral communications; 3 oral communications by invitation) and was invited to give 7 invited seminars. Sofia has contributed to the development of science education, by supervising several students from different academic degrees, including 13 BSc students, 4 MSc students and 1 PhD student. So far, she has participated in 9 juries of academic degrees. Sofia recognizes the importance of engaging the community in scientific activities, therefore she was involved in several outreach and science communication events. CAREER BREAKS/MATERNAL LEAVE (1): October/April 2017 (reduced working hours until December 2018).