Isabel Silveira is Group Leader at Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (i3S)-Universidade do Porto and Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular (IBMC), Porto, Portugal. She is also a Teacher at the PhD Program in Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Porto. She graduated in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Porto. She then pursued her studies in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University Paris V, France. She obtained her PhD degree in human genetics specializing in disease gene mapping. Her research group focuses on finding genes implicated in neurodegenerative diseases towards development of genetic diagnosis and treatment for these pathologies. She Published 55 articles in international peer-review journals. Has 1 section of a book. Supervised 4 PhD thesis and 5 MSc dissertation(s). Has received 4 awards and/or honors. Participates and/or participated as Principal Investigator in 9 project(s) and Researcher in 1 project. In collaboration with a Galician team (Spain), she was involved in the finding of the GGCCTG repeat expansion in intron 1 of NOP56, causing spinocerebellar ataxia type 36 (SCA36). More recently, her team in collaboration with colleagues from renowned National and International Institutions has identified a non-coding ATTTC repeat insertion in a 5'UTR intron of DAB1 (DAB1, reelin adaptor protein) causing SCA37. They have shown that overexpression of the ATTTC repeat triggers abnormal nuclear RNA accumulation. Her team have also demonstrated that the AUUUC repeat RNA causes lethal developmental malformation when injected in zebrafish embryos. They are currently investigating RNA-mediated mechanisms leading to these diseases and how to rescue them.