Mário Barbosa is an Emeritus Full Professor at ICBAS - University of Porto (Portugal), where he serves as Vice-President of the Strategic Council for One Health initiatives. Additionally, he is a Senior Researcher at i3S (Portugal) and former leader of Microenvironments for New Therapies group. The main topic of his research is the modulation of inflammation in tissue repair/regeneration, namely through the design of immunomodulatory microenvironments. His group bioengineers microenvironments that promote tissue regeneration/functional restoration through modulation of the host response. His participation in research projects, financially supported by a diversity of sources, has fostered collaborations with China, USA, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. His contribution to research has been recognized by several prestigious prizes, including the George Winter Award of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB), the ESB award for outstanding work of an established researcher (2001), the Klaas de Groot Award (2020), the ESB award for scientists who have shown a distinct ability to provide excellent mentorship and guidance to young researchers (2020). Recently, he received the Ciência Scientific Merit Award from the Ministry for Science and Technology (2021), the Vila do Conde Medal Award (2021) and the Porto Municipality Gold Medal (2022). He has published 298 papers in international journals with peer reviewing (h-index 60; >12 000 citations), as well as he has vast experience in managing research projects. From 2015 to 2019 M. Barbosa was the first director and one of the founders of the largest R&D research institute in Portugal (i3S) externally evaluated twice by the Portuguese national foundation (FCT) with the highest possible marks. Additionally, he has established a Spine Focus Group with clinicians from the Neurosurgery Department of Hospital São João (Portugal), who provide a unique view on intervertebral disc pathophysiology and clinical needs.