Rita F Santos graduated in Biomedical Laboratory Sciences from the Polytechnic Institute of Porto in 2012 and then got a master's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Aveiro. Rita developed her master's thesis at the Cell Activation and Gene Expression group in the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology under the supervision of Alexandre Carmo. Her interest in investigating the features that regulate the immune response led her to pursue her studies in the field and enroll in the Ph.D. program in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Porto. During the Ph.D., Rita dissected the functional role of the T cell surface protein CD6 in regulating T cell activation and autoimmunity. She accumulated extensive expertise in T-cell signaling, checkpoint inhibitors, antigen presentation, auto-immune diseases, and advanced cell and molecular techniques. In particular, she established a CD6 delta domain 3 KO mouse model by CRISPR/Cas9 and a multitude of engineered cellular models that can be of transversal interest. Currently, Rita is a Junior Researcher in the Immune Regulation group at i3S, where she is interested in understanding the molecular pathways that drive progressive fibrosis in patients with interstitial lung diseases. Rita kept her interest in T cell biology and was granted a fellowship to characterize the T cell response in hypersensitivity pneumonitis patients’ upon fungal exposure. She is currently supervising two Master's students and co-supervising other two. Additionally, Rita is an invited adjunct professor at the School of Health, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, where she teaches Immunology, advanced molecular techniques, and human physiology (at both BSc and MSc levels).