Dr. Pereira has a Biology degree from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP), a MSc in Plant Molecular Physiology from University of Minho, and a PhD in Biology from University of Porto. Her scientific career is marked by strong international mobility and interdisciplinary training, including research periods at the University of Regensburg, the University of Milan, and the University of Arizona, where she collaborated with multidisciplinary teams in the fields of plant molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. She also benefited from highly competitive mobility and training opportunities, including a MSCA Individual Fellowship at University of Milan. Her career included two maternity leaves, representing important career breaks. Between 2021 - 2024, she worked as an Early Career Researcher in the European MSCA project CRISPit, expanding her research interests towards crop reproduction and heat stress. This marked an important transition from model species to translational research questions in rice reproductive resilience, aiming to connect fundamental science with current challenges in crop resilience and food security. She is currently an Auxiliary Researcher under the CEEC programme at LAQV/REQUIMTE, (2023.07134.CEECIND) hosted at the Sexual Plant Reproduction and Development Laboratory (SPReDLab, FCUP), where she is developing an independent research line focused on cell-cell communication during the progamic phase of plant reproduction. Her research addresses the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying pollen-pistil interactions, with emphasis on female reproductive tissues, extracellular matrix dynamics, programmed cell death, and the role of cell wall-associated glycoproteins, especially arabinogalactan proteins, in plant reproduction and stress responses. Her work combines expertise in genetics, molecular and cell biology, transcriptomics, bioimaging, and reproductive phenotyping. She’s author/co-author of 24 ISI papers, the majority in Q1 journals (40% as 1st author, 15% as last author), one book chapter, has an h-index of 13 (Scopus) and 561 citations (Scopus). Dr. Pereira has progressively increased her involvement in project design, fundraising, supervision, and scientific leadership. She contributed to the conception and preparation of successful competitive applications at national and international levels, including SexSeed (MSCA-RISE-2015), SeedWheels (FCT-2018), and EpiAGPs (MSCA-IF-2016). She is currently involved in funded projects with increasing leadership responsibilities, as co-PI of CRISPit (H2020-MSCA-SE-2021), PI of PrOryza (PL24-00035), and task leader in HALO-FORCE (PRIMA 2025), helping secure more than 3M€ in funding. Since 2020, she lectures as Invited Assistant Professor at FCUP, where she has been responsible for preparing and teaching practical classes in several BSc and MSc courses, including Molecular & Cell Biology, Plant Biology, Developmental Biology and Biotechnology. Dr. Pereira’s leadership includes mentoring BSc (>15), MSc (>10), PhD students (1), and Post-Docs (1) fostering their scientific careers through successful supervision and training initiatives. Her contributions reflect her commitment to advancing plant biology research and education.