My name is Ana Chegão and I hold a MSc in Biochemistry. I am currently finishing my PhD student at Chronic Diseases Research Center (CEDOC) at NOVA Medical School. I started my academic training back in 2007 at the University of Beira Interior where I attended both the bachelor and master¿s degrees in Biochemistry. During my MSc thesis I worked in a clinical immunology project, studying how monoclonal antibodies therapy ameliorate rheumatoid arthritis. I successfully completed this practical training with a remarkable score of 19 out of 20. After concluding my MSc, I received a scholar award for finishing the MSc in Biochemistry with the best final classification of 2013. After finishing my academic training, in June of 2014 I embraced a volunteer training at the Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV) working on plants health. Afterwards, I was select for one fellowship at INIAV in collaboration with the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB NOVA) to continue the previous work. After this, I was provided an opportunity to work in a second fellowship at ITQB NOVA. During these two fellowships, I worked in agronomic sciences research. In September 2016, I have been selected to a research fellowship at Professor Tiago Outeiro¿s unit in CEDOC, under the supervision of Professor Hugo Vicente Miranda. I dedicated myself to investigate the glycation defenses as a protective strategy for Parkinson¿s disease. In March 2018, I was awarded a PhD fellowship granted by the PhD program in Mechanisms of disease and Regenerative Medicine (ProRegeM), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, in a collaboration between NOVA Medical School and Universidade do Algarve. In my PhD project, I aim to unveil the underlying role of glycation in the pathogenesis of Parkinson¿s disease. This project is being supervised of Professor Hugo Vicente Miranda and Professor Tiago Outeiro. Our hypotheses are that glycation triggers Parkinson¿s disease-like phenotypes and strategies aimed at decreasing glycation could be used as a novel therapeutic target for this and related synucleinopathies. Furthermore, we also propose to identify novel neuronal glycation targets and the pathways involved in the response to glycation, and to assess their relevance in the context of Parkinson¿s disease. My work has been presented by myself or co-workers in more than 20 posters and more than 10 oral communications at both national and international meetings and congresses. Moreover, the results from my work were included in 2 article in Scientific Reports and Faseb. Currently, I have 1 article under revisions in npj Parkinson’s disease and 1 additional article in Nutrients MDPI. Throughout my work, I acquired experience with a wide range of techniques of molecular biology, involving both protein and DNA analysis, among others. In particular, I am highly trained in understanding and explore the molecular mechanisms in cell culture models of alpha-synuclein pathology. Furthermore, I also have a solid experience in working with mice models, including surgical procedures and behaviour testing. I have had a very active role in the formation of both under-graduate and graduate students,. So far, I have supervised the work of 9 students, both at the lab, but also in reports and thesis writing. My research interests are focused on neurodegeneration and the role of metabolism disorders on it. I aim to identify the underlying molecular mechanisms that drive neuropathological events in synucleinopathies and to identify novel neuronal targets and to assess their role on neurodegenerative disorders.