Andreia Teixeira-Castro (44 years old, Ph.D.) holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Sciences at University of Porto and started her research work at the Institute for molecular and cell biology, at University of Porto, where she did an internship on the subject of identification of molecular partners of ataxin-3, the protein involved in Machado-Joseph disease or Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA3) pathogenesis, one of many diseases associated with toxic protein aggregation. This work was led in the lab of Prof. Jorge Sequeiros, a recognized scientist in the field and responsible for the first descriptions of the disease. During this period, Andreia moved to University of Coimbra to the laboratory of Prof. Sandra Macedo-Ribeiro to be trained in the biochemistry of protein-protein interactions. She went then to University of Minho, received a Master in Molecular Genetics from the School of Sciences. In 2007, Andreia started a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from the School of Medicine at the University of Minho, under the supervision of Prof. Patrícia Maciel, one of the world-leading scientists in the study of molecular mechanisms associated with neurodegenerative and neurodevelopment disorders. Andreia's main focus was on the development and characterization of a C. elegans model of SCA3 pathogenesis, which replicated many aspects of the disease including the progressive loss of protein homeostasis capacity that occurs during aging and is accelerated in disease. In 2011, Andreia started a post-doctoral position in the lab of Prof. Patrícia Maciel at the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS, Univ. of Minho) in cooperation with Prof. Richard Morimoto (Northwestern University, USA). During this period, Andreia established a drug discovery pipeline from C. elegans to mouse to human cells and had the opportunity to collaborate with many scientists in different fields of expertise spanning from biochemistry, medicine, medicinal chemistry, automated behavioral analysis, and high-throughput analysis laboratories. Andreia is currently an Assistant Researcher with tenure at ICVS and an Assistant Professor at School of Medicine, University of Minho. Andreia has published 37 peer-reviewed papers with an accumulated impact factor of 191 and h-index= 16, including one publication in one leading journal in the field (Brain, IF (2022-23) =14.5). Her work has above 755 citations (Scopus). She is currently supervising 2 post-doctoral fellows, 5 Ph.D. students and 2 M.Sc. students, in addition to 36 supervisions concluded with success. Andreia has one patent (EP3069718A1) on "Citalopram or escitalopram for use in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases", currently issued by the European Patent Office and in expansion worldwide. Andreia's main research interest is to study the imbalance of protein homeostasis associated with neurodegenerative diseases and to understand how proteostasis adaptation and/or enhancement may be beneficial to age-related disorders and constitute important therapeutic approaches. Her group utilizes an integrated approach, going from molecules to model systems to human patients, using pharmacology, chemical genetics, molecular genetics, transcriptomics, proteomics, cell biology, behavioral and electrophysiology analyses.