I am an independent researcher working in a multi-PI group called Integrative Biomedicine laboratory (IBL), which is integrated at the cE3c research center at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (FCUL) and is a collaborating group of the iNOVA4Health research center at the NOVA Medical School, NOVA University of Lisbon (NMS). I graduated in Biological Sciences and Genetics (UFRGS, Brazil, 1996) and obtained a PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology (UFRGS, 2002) and did postdoctoral work in France (with Prof. Drs. Pierre Capy (CNRS) and Vincent Colot (GENOPOLE) 2003-2007) and in Spain (with Dr. Angela Nieto (Instituto de Neurociências de Alicante, 2008-2012) before joining the IBL in Portugal as a senior researcher in 2012. During my career, I have received competitive personal fellowships from multiple funding agencies in different countries, such as the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq; undergraduate and graduate fellowships), the Spanish Research Council (CSIC JAE post-doctoral fellowship), and the Portuguese FCT (Postdoctoral Fellowship and Researcher Contract). My PhD and initial postdoctoral work in France were mainly focused on the biology and evolution of repetitive elements and their epigenetic regulation. From these years, I highlight 1) having made early contributions to the importance of horizontal transmission in the evolution of genomes (Heredia et al., Mol Biol Evol, 2004); and 2) having shown a role for endogenous RNAi in the selective correction of DNA methylation defects (Teixeira, Heredia et al., Science, 2009). Other collaborative work during these years was on the essentiality and damage in metabolic networks (Nemke, Heredia et al., Bioinformatics, 2004) and broader epigenetic mechanisms of chromatin state regulation in development and disease (Klapholz et al., Chromosoma, 2009; Grande et al., Kidney International, 2010; Heredia and Nieto, 2011). In 2012, I joined the IBL at NMS in Portugal as a senior researcher under a competitive FCT postdoctoral fellowship, becoming de facto independent in 2018 when I was awarded my first grant as PI by the FCT, followed by a second one in 2020, and obtained further support from the FCT and NMS that hired me as an Investigator in 2019. Since my arrival in Portugal, I have also been co-investigator in 4 research grants and lead (and/or co-supervising) researcher in the projects related to neuropeptide signaling and innate behavior control (e.g., Garelli*, Heredia*, Casimiro* et al. Nature Communications 2015; Heredia* et al., Nature Communications 2021, *co-first authors; and Zanini et al. Heredia* and Gontijo*, bioRxiv, 2024, *co-corresponding authors). In addition, I am author of 11 other publications in repetitive element regulation (e.g., Heredia et al., Gen Mol Biol, 2005; Picot et al., Heredity, 2008; Johannes et al., PLoS Genet, 2009; Bellec et al., bioRxiv, 2024), and innate behavior control (e.g., Imambocus et al., Curr Biol, 2022; Fernandez-Acosta et al., bioRxiv, 2024), with a total citation of 1937 (H-index = 12; GoogleScholar ). I have advised a total of 27 students and 3 researchers, have had administrative responsibilities (as senior scientific supervisor of a research facility), coordinated multi-institution training courses in Portugal and abroad, and taught Cellular and Molecular Biology to medical and nutritional sciences students at the NMS and Neurobiology to biology students at FCUL.