Magda M Santana (PharmD, PhD) is a junior researcher interested in translational research in Neurosciences field. As undergraduate student, MMS was in the ranking of the 3% Best Students of Pharmaceutical Sciences. MMS finished her Integrated Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences (final classification 17/20), in 2008, and got her Doctoral degree in Pharmacy (Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy) at University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 2013. In 2014, Magda was invited by Prof. Luis Pereira de Almeida to join the Vectors, Gene and Cell Therapy | Molecular Therapy of Brain disorders group and since then she has been focused her research in the development of biomarkers, pre-clinical models (iPSCs and rodents) and drug/gene therapies for MJD, in straight collaboration with other team members, international partners and pharmaceutical companies. In total, Magda has been part of the research team of about 25 projects (including two international consortia: JPNDcoFund ESMI and ModelPolyQ). MS was awarded twice by the National Ataxia Foundation, the most prominent foundation supporting research in the US within ataxias field, with a post-doctoral grant (2016, $35 000) and with the SCA Young Investigator Award (2019), with a $50 000 budget attributed for developing a systems biology approach for biomarker discovery. Magda got international scientific experience as undergraduate student (Erasmus Program, London¿s University, UK), as PhD student (Dresden University, Germany) and as post-doctoral researcher (training programs/courses in Luxembourg and Germany) and has actively participated in both national and international scientific meetings, being first or co-author of over 80 oral/poster communications. Magda is author/co-author of 24 papers/3 book chapters in peer-reviewed international journals, 18 conference abstracts and was/is supervisor/co-supervisor of 3 PhD Student, 6 MSc students and several graduate/undergraduate students. Magda has been invited to give practical classes and lectures in graduate courses and programmes, is responsible for support to the coordination of the Master in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra) and has participating in academic examining committees of MSc/PhD Thesis. Magda was also invited by NAF for grant evaluation. Magda engaged several scientific communication and knowledge transference public activities, such European Researcher s night, Ciência Viva, Brain Awareness Week and Rare Disease Day and is an active member of the SCA Global and SCA Global Young Investigator Initiative.