João Gonçalves Martins graduated with distinction in 2021 from CESPU (Cooperativa de Ensino Superior Politécnico e Universitário, Porto, Portugal). He completed his MSc in Biomedical Research, specialty Neurosciences (Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra) in 2023 under the co-supervision of Joana Isabel Simões Ferreira at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC, Portugal) and Ana Cristina Rego (CNC, Portugal). After completing his MSc, João stayed at CNC, working as a research fellow in the SynBridge project, “SynBridge - A New TransSynaptic Bridge: Functional characterization of the NMDA receptor-Neurexin interaction” (reference: 2022.05386.PTDC), financed by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), of the University of Coimbra, until December 2024. During this time, he applied and was granted the FCT PhD scholarship and enrolled in the Doctoral Programme in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine, where he is developing his PhD project titled "EphA4’s role in synaptic function and neuronal vulnerability in Alzheimer’s Disease through the modulation of glutamate receptors". He has given poster and oral presentations at national and international conferences. He often participates in science communication activities to disseminate and raise awareness about his science on neurodegenerative disorders. He was also selected to participate in the European Commission's Horizon Europe Young Observer program, where he had the opportunity to follow the evaluation steps for competitive European research calls. He is also trained in laboratory animal science.