Leonilde M. Moreira is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon, and Principal Investigator at the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB-IST), specializing in molecular microbiology, bacterial genetics, and functional genomics of medically relevant bacteria. Her research has centered on the Burkholderia cepacia complex, elucidating the genetic and regulatory networks controlling exopolysaccharide biosynthesis, multicellular aggregation, biofilm formation, and long-term evolution in cystic fibrosis infections through comparative genomics, transposon mutagenesis, and targeted gene editing, including recent optimization of CRISPR/Cas9 for Burkholderia. She has recently expanded into microbial ecology, characterizing mosquito life-cycle microbiota and the interaction with the vector. Graduated in Biochemistry (1990, University of Coimbra), she holds an MSc in Biotechnology (1993, IST), PhD in Biotechnology/Microbiology (1997, IST), and Habilitation in Biotechnology and Biosciences (2018, IST). She was awarded a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Bielefeld, Germany (1997–1999), and took sabbaticals at leading laboratories in Canada (University of British Columbia, 2006), USA (University of Illinois at Chicago, 2007; University of New Hampshire, 2015). As PI of 8 competitive national projects, she has supervised 9 PhDs, over 50 MSc students, and 2 postdocs; published 50 peer-reviewed articles and 8 book chapters; and reviewed for major agencies (FCT, CFF, ERC, NSF, NIH, Wellcome Trust, MRC, ANR, EU) and journals. She coordinates the MSc in Biotechnology at IST, teaches Genetic Engineering (BSc) and Molecular Biotechnology (MSc), and co-founded the Portuguese SME Gene Express (2004–2025). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led IST’s SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing laboratory (2020–2022). Her commitment to outreach includes workshops for biology teachers and microbiology courses for secondary school pupils.