Dr. Ana Rita Lima Sousa (citation name: Rita Lima-Sousa) is a researcher specializing in nanotechnology, biomaterials, and cancer therapy. Currently, she is a Junior Researcher at I3Bs - Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics of the University of Minho, working on the RECOVER project. Dr Ana Rita Sousa defended her PhD dissertation in Biochemistry (2024), approved with distinction at the University of Beira Interior (UBI). She previously completed her BSc in Biochemistry (13 out of 20, 2016) and her MSc in Biomedical Sciences (18 out of 20, 2018), both from UBI. Her PhD dissertation (2018-2024) focused on developing new strategies for the local and systemic delivery of graphene-based nanomaterials for cancer photothermal therapy, under the supervision of I. J. Correia, A. G. Mendonça and D. de Melo-Diogo (CICS-UBI). Her research path resulted in the publication of 27 articles in international peer-reviewed journals indexed to Scopus, 8 of which were as first author, and 1 Book Chapter (first author), benefiting from the work with 20+ different researchers. This body of work has garnered 1234 citations as indexed by Scopus, or 1406 citations according to Google Scholar, contributing to an h-index of 21. Among these publications, 7 were ranked within journals in the TOP10 of their field, while an additional 17 were published in Q1 journals, reflecting a cumulative IF of 166.1, with an average IF of 6.15. Notably, Scopus reports that 82.1% of her articles rank within the top 25% of the most-cited documents in the world. Additionally, Dr. Ana Rita has participated as an ad hoc reviewer of 8 different Scientific Journals in the past 3 years, and was a member of the research team of the project "GRAPHY (DOI 10.54499/2022.06320.PTDC), funded by FCT, among other projects that she participated in. Dr. Ana Rita Sousa has engaged in the organization of the III and IV International Congress in Health Sciences Research: Towards Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Trends in Aging and Cancer in 2019, and Challenges from Research to Clinics in 2022), as a member of the CICS-UBI Doctoral Students Committee (CAD-CICS-UBI), among other minor scientific events. She has presented 2 oral communications by invitation of the Organizing Committee, participated in 28 scientific events, had her work presented in Panel Communications (posters) 22 times, and has received 2 awards (e.g., Individual PhD fellowship from FCT REF: SFRH/BD/144922/2019). She has also attended a Course on “Online Theoretical Course in Laboratory Animal Sciences” organized by SPCAL. In the last 5 years, she was co-supervisor of 3 MSc students, supervisor/co-supervisor of 6 BSc degree projects aggregated into Curricular Units, and has participated in the jury of 3 BSc degree projects. Dr. Ana Rita Sousa also taught (as monitor) 4 distinct Curricular Units (Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials, Chemistry, and Cellular and Molecular Biology), resulting in a cumulative number of hours taught of 237 hours. Her main areas of interest are Medical and Health Sciences, Medical Biotechnology, and Biomaterials, with an emphasis on the development of injectable hydrogels for cancer local therapy; new polymeric materials for application in cancer therapy; production and modification of light-responsive materials for application in cancer therapy; and characterization of the biological activity of nanomaterials in 2D and 3D cellular models. She is open to the idea of new adventures in science and has developed a recent interest in extracellular vesicles, tumor-induced cachexia, microfluidics, and organ-on-a-chip.