Joana Apolónio has a PhD in Mechanisms of Disease and Regenerative Medicine completed in 2019. During her PhD project she worked under the supervision of Dr. Pedro Castelo-Branco (UAlg) and Dr. Uri Tabori (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada), and she was focused on the study of TERT promoter methylation status in breast cancer, namely, its impact on TERT transcriptional regulation and its clinical implications, as a disease biomarker and therapeutic target. Since 2020, holds a position as Auxiliar Researcher at the Algarve Biomedical Center/ Algarve Biomedical Center Research Institute (ABC-RI), where integrates the Epigenetics in Human Disease Group, coordinated by Dr. Pedro Castelo-Branco, and is the head of the Strategic Planning and Project Management Unit of ABC. Since 2022, she integrated the ABC CoLab team and holds a position as Invited Auxiliar Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Algarve, where teaches units like Epigenetics and Problem-Based-Learning (PBL-clinical within the Master's Degree in Medicine). Through her academic path in cancer research, became highly experienced in a wide repertoire of cellular and molecular biology techniques. Has also excellent communication and team working skills coupled with personal qualities including competence, responsibility, dynamism, and with a strong commitment to high ethical standards. In the last years has been focused on the study of epigenetic alterations in cancer, including breast, colorectal, prostate, bladder and gliobastoma, and also in ageing. She has been deeply committed to attracting funding. Joana has participated in 16 research projects (both national and international), 1 as Principal Investigator (PI), and 15 as team member. As a result of her scientific career, published 1 book chapter and 20 articles in international journals with peer-review , resulting in more than 950 citations, with an h-index of 13 (according to Scopus). Her work was also presented in national and international meetings, counting with 13 oral communications and 29 poster presentations. Additionally, she received a total of 8 distinctions awards and/or honors. In 2025, she was awarded with a grant from the Portuguese League Against Cancer-NRS to further investigate THOR methylation as a non-invasive biomarker in breast cancer. Is highly engaged in supervising students conducting laboratory works with a total of 17 students in the last years: 2 PhD student in Biomedical Sciences (ongoing), 1 MSc in Medicine, 3 MSC in Biomedical Sciences, 1 Biomedical Sciences monography and 10 Medicine monographs (3 ongoing). She was also a jury member and arguer of 1 academic MSc degree and 1 Bachelor's degree. Joana has also organized several meetings/events and is highly involved in several outreach and science communication activities. Additionally, Joana still collaborates with Dr. Uri Tabori (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada) and has many collaborations with clinicians at the Algarve Local Health Unit, Faro. CAREER BREAKS/MATERNAL LEAVE (1): September 2020/February 2021 (reduced working hours until September 2021).