Raquel Gonçalves graduated in Chemical Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (Portugal) and got a PhD in Biotechnology in the same institution, in collaboration with the Department of Animal Biotechnology at University of Nevada, Reno (USA). She has academic and industry expertise, this latter in a cord blood bank, where she implemented the lab procedures and SOPs for stem cell isolation and cryopreservation. Currently, she is an Assistant Investigator at i3S (Portugal) and Affiliated Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of University of Porto (Portugal), as well as Co-Founder and COO of FETALDISC LDA startup. Raquel has been dedicated to the design of stem cells-based therapies and biomaterials to control the immune response, particularly focusing on the intervertebral disc. In 2018, she received the prestigious Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, that allowed her to spend a sabbatical period in Germany, Ulm. Raquel’s work has been awarded by several institutions including the German Spine Society, the European Spine Society and the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society (TERMIS). She has published >70 scientific papers in internationally recognized and peer reviewed journals with >3500 citations and h-index=32. Additionally, she is engaged in science dissemination actions for children and adolescents in Porto.