João Calmeiro has more than 9 years of national and international professional experience in the pharmaceutical, biomedicine, and healthcare fields, in both academia and industry, allowing him to develop an advanced and extended array of scientific-technical skills alongside leadership, educational and personal knowledge. João is concluding his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, with a specialization in Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Coimbra (FFUC). He is working with the pharmaceutical company Tecnimede and ToxFinder in the field of cancer immunotherapy and cell therapy, aiming at the development of novel dendritic cell-based vaccines and on the development of a pioneer laboratory for cell therapy in Portugal (the UpCells lab, from UC-Tecnimede Association). This project comprises collaborations with the Portuguese Institute for Blood and Transplantation (IPST) and Coimbra Hospital and University Centre (CHUC). During his Ph.D., João worked at Institut Curie and Hospital Curie in Paris, one of the leading medical, biological, and biophysical research centers in the world. Previously, João worked at the NOVA Medical School (CEDOC) in Lisbon, at the company SICGEN Antibodies, and at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra (CNC UC). At CNC UC, for 4 years, João was trained by Professor João Peça, an MIT and Duke University-trained scientist. In 2015, João Calmeiro was considered one of the young investigators of the year with the Gulbenkian Prize Estímulo à Investigação, awarded by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. In 2016, João Calmeiro was awarded by the pharmaceutical company Novartis, as one of Portugal's young biotech leaders, selected for the restrict group of the Novartis Biotechnology Leadership Camp (BioCamp) Portugal. In 2018, João was awarded by the German company ImmunoTools with the ImmunoTools Special Award. In 2019, João was awarded the EIT Health Ph.D. Translational Fellowship, by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Health, an international healthcare initiative funded by the European Union. In 2020, João was considered 1 of the 100 world Leaders of Tomorrow in the biotechnology field, by the Global Biotech Revolution and University of Cambridge, being selected to attend the restricted event Gap Summit 2020 at Cambridge. There, João was awarded the 1st prize from a jury of global industry leaders and investors on the international bio-innovation competition Voices of Tomorrow. In the same year, João was elected as a member of parliament (MP) of the Health Parliament Portugal - parliamentary committee of oncology, allowing him to develop political landscape, policy-making expertise, and network with several KOLs and decision-makers. In 2019, João successfully concluded an advanced course in Biodesign at the University of Oxford. João is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).