Elsa obtained undergraduate degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1988. During her PhD she constructed integrative vectors for the development of recombinant vaccines in BCG. After the PhD in Pharmacy-Microbiology in 1998, she decided to move the research area to the cell biology of mycobacteria infection. In 2000, she did a post graduation in molecular biology of the cell at the Institute Pasteur, Paris and it was the starting point for a postdoctoral formation at EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany, with Gareth Griffiths, as an EMBO and Gulbenkian fellow (2000-2005). Her work focused on the role of cytoskeleton during mycobacteria infection in macrophages. In parallel she started her independent research group at CPM-FFUL as head of the “Host-Mycobateria Interactions” group. In 2007, she was accepted as external group leader at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, FMUL after positive evaluation by an international group of experts. With the reorganization of FCT laboratories she is since 2014 the head of HPI laboratory at iMed-FFUL. As a pharmacist trained in microbiology and cell biology, she focus the research on host cell factors that contribute to tuberculosis control as well as the M. tuberculosis factors that this pathogen uses to highjack host cells: how it manipulates gene expression, the cytoskeleton, vesicle trafficking, and innate/adaptive immune responses including inflammasome activation and the activity of antimicrobial proteins. Her lab is providing the basis for the development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic approaches to control TB including during co-infection with HIV.