Sónia Sá Santos graduated in Biochemistry (2000) at Faculty of Sciences, ULisboa, and holds a PhD in Biochemistry (speciality in Neurosciences, 2009) from ITQB, NOVA University Lisbon. She worked for about nine years in the biotechnology field, including doctoral studies, at the Animal Cell Technology Unit of ITQB/iBET. Her PhD contributed to the establishment of 2D and 3D in vitro bioreactor models of neural cells for a deeper knowledge of intra- and intercellular metabolism under mimicked in vivo oxygen deprivation. Part of her PhD was done abroad at the Dept. of Neuroscience of NTNU, Norway. In 2009 she moved to iMM Lisboa for her first postdoc which was devoted, to preclinical in vivo/in vitro assays, to evaluate the therapeutic potential of new improved neuropeptide derivatives against pain and neurodegeneration. Since 2019 she embraced a research project at iMed.ULisboa (Dr. Susana Solá Team) aiming to better understand how mitochondrial bioenergetics influences neuroplasticity mediated by neural stem cells during ageing, with focus on the microbiota-gut-brain axis.