Elisabete Nascimento Gonçalves (ENG) holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD). The versatility of this degree allowed her to contact with many areas from traditional engineering to medicine-related subjects. She also holds a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering (UPorto), acquiring knowledge in areas of cell therapies and animal experimentation. Her Master thesis, titled “Influence of the anatomical location of the harvest on the osteogenic differentiation of Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells”, was conducted at BoneLab, Faculty of Dentistry (UPorto). During this period, ENG had her first contact with laboratory animals from which she harvested adipose tissue and performed a range of laboratory techniques, such as cell culture and histology. Throughout 4 years working in a professional setting outside of research, ENG maintained a strong connection with academia and her supervisors. She contributed to the FCT-funded project “RUNNING away from prostate cancer: WALKING through the molecular basis of physical activity”, which later originated her doctoral thesis. ENG returned to the academia supported by a PhD fellowship funded by the FCT in a competitive application. ENG also completed the course “Cie^ncias em Animais de Laborato´rio-Categoria B”, recognized by DGAV, which qualifies her to conduct experimental protocols using laboratory animals. She completed a PhD in Veterinary Sciences with a specialization in Biomedical Sciences, titled “Contribution to the study of prostate cancer: lifestyle influence in an animal model”. During the PhD, ENG took 9 months of parental leave due to a high-risk pregnancy. In her PhD project, ENG implemented a hormonally and chemically induced prostate cancer rat model to assess the impact of chestnut flower extract consumption and to evaluate the influence of moderate exercise on the development of prostate lesions. Through her doctoral work, ENG became independent to handle rodents, administer drugs and perform euthanasia and collect animal samples. ENG also acquired skills to perform and interpret the results of several methodologies: oxidative stress biomarkers, histopathological analysis, immunohistochemistry and immunophenotyping analysis by flow cytometry. ENG participated as author or co-author in 12 oral communications and 9 poster communications at national and international scientific meetings. It is noteworthy that ENG was awarded the prize for the best oral communication at the European Society for Clinical Investigation (ESCI) Virtual Meeting in 2021. Parallelly, ENG participated in other scientific projects within the research team, such as investigating the effects of plant extracts with bioactive properties in FBV/n and K14HPV16 mice, as well as the characterization of animal models of colorectal cancer and obesity models. ENG’s main scientific interests lie in biomedicine, namely the study of diseases using animal models and the evaluation of lifestyle in disease progression. These works resulted in 9 peer-reviewed articles (original research and reviews), 3 oral communications and 3 poster communications in scientific meetings. These studies enabled her to examine animal models of other diseases, such as diabetes, obesities, K14HPV16 model and colorectal cancer, thereby enhancing her expertise and knowledge in this field. She currently holds a research fellow at UTAD, funded by the project Vine & Wine Portugal - Driving Sustainable Growth Through Smart Innovation, entitled “BFF_Bioprocessed Fertilizers: an ecoFriendly technology for nutrient recycling and environmental sustainability”. The aim of this work is to use earthworms for the valorization of by-products derived from the wine industry, exploring their role in waste managem. In total, over the past five years, ENG published 17 scientific articles, 10 of which were as first author. ENG has a h index of 6.