Débora Alexandra Reste-Ferreira is a biostatistician and researcher with a strong multidisciplinary background that bridges clinical research, neuroscience, immunology, and ophthalmology. With scientific curiosity and a focus on translational medicine, she has contributed to both national and international projects, applying a range of methodologies—from laboratory-based experimental work to advanced statistical and computational data analysis. Her work explores the interface between immune responses, aging, neurodegeneration, and retinal health, with a commitment to generating impactful, clinically relevant findings. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry in July 2016 and her Master’s Degree in October 2018, both from the University of Beira Interior. Her MSc research was developed in the field of Neurosciences, under the supervision of Professor Graça Baltazar at the Health Sciences Research Centre (CICS-UBI). The project aimed to investigate the role of the protein STEP in the modulation of neuroinflammation, focusing on mechanisms relevant to neurological diseases. This early experience provided her with a strong foundation in molecular neuroscience and cellular biology, as well as hands-on training in advanced laboratory techniques. In February 2019, she joined the ICON-BIM-04C project (Interdisciplinary Challenges in Neurodegeneration) as a Research Fellow at CICS-UBI, funded by Centro 2020 (CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000013). Supervised by Professor Fernando A. Arosa and Professor Elsa M. Cardoso, she worked within the Neurological and Neurodegenerative Disorders Group. Her research focused on identifying immune biomarkers of cognitive function by conducting phenotypic and functional studies of immune cells from elderly individuals and patients with neurodegenerative conditions in the Beira Interior region. During this time, she collaborated extensively with a multidisciplinary team and demonstrated autonomy in scientific data analysis and interpretation. In 2020, she was awarded a Doctoral Incentive Fellowship (BID/CI-FCS/CICS/Santander Universidades-UBI-2020) to pursue a project centered on neuroimmune crosstalk. From January to June 2021, she developed a human in vitro model to investigate CD8+ T cell responses to neuronal antigens presented by autologous dendritic cells. This project further reinforced her interest in neuroimmunology and deepened her expertise in immunological assays and in vitro modeling of human immune responses. Between July 2021 and August 2022, she worked as a Research Fellow at the Cloud Computing Competence Centre (C4-UBI), under the supervision of Professor Noel Lopes and Professor Elsa M. Cardoso. Her work involved the application of machine learning algorithms—both supervised and unsupervised—to detect disease risk factors, with a particular focus on the classification of immune cell populations and their correlation with cognitive status. This position allowed her to combine biological insight with computational tools and strengthened her proficiency in R and Python for data science. In September 2022, she joined AIBILI – Association for Biomedical Research and Innovation in Light and Image, based in Coimbra, as a Biostatistician in the Diabetic Retinopathy Research Group. In this role, she leads the statistical analysis of clinical research studies involving functional, structural, and vascular imaging data. She is responsible for developing Statistical Analysis Plans (SAPs), performing statistical analyses using Stata and R, and contributing to the preparation of scientific manuscripts and reports. Her scientific contributions include 15 peer-reviewed articles published in high-impact journals across fields such as ophthalmology, neuroscience, immunology, and translational medicine.