Joana Amaral is a biologist graduated from the Faculty of Sciences, Universidade de Lisboa. In 2008, she completed her PhD in Pharmacy (Biochemistry) at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa. She was PI of 2 funded research projects and team member of other 9. She has published 35 indexed peer-reviewed papers, 3 book chapters and more than 100 abstracts (Scopus: h-index 17; ca. 1,200 citations). Her main scientific interests are focused on identifying new molecular targets for therapeutic intervention. She is particularly interested in the regulation of signaling pathways mostly involved in cell death, inflammation and proliferation. She pursues these goals in disease processes that stretch from neurodegeneration involving premature cell death to cancer that implicates enhanced resistance to cell death. She is also deeply involved in cell-based screening assays for basic science, biomedical and/or other industrial applications, in collaboration with in-house partners, external Medicinal Chemistry research groups, industry and biotech.