Joana Cristina Pacheco Barbosa is currently a PhD Researcher in a PRR-funded project at Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, and was granted a CEEC contract as Junior Reseacher in the previous call. Her main research interests are focused on the search for new alternatives to traditional antibiotic therapy, promoting disease prevention rather than treatment, with the goal of delivering better health and well-being to society. Thus, her investigation has been focusing on the development of antimicrobial peptides as new antibiotic alternatives, on the characterization of new probiotics and respective delivery methods, and on the development of new plant-based food alternatives. Previoulsy, she was involved in the valorization of the knowledge and technologies developed in her research center and their possible transferability towards the industry. Joana completed her PhD in Biology, Specialization Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2020/01/28, being approved with praise and distinction ("Aprovado por Unanimidade com Louvor e Distinção") by Universidade de Aveiro. Her PhD was financed by an FCT mixed-grant and the work was performed at Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal) and Technical University of Berlin (Germany) and in collaboration with the Institute of Molecular Medicine (Lisboa, Portugal). She finished her MSc in Molecular Biotechnology in 2012/12 at Universidade de Aveiro. During her MSc, she was awarded with an Erasmus grant and spent a semester at Università degli Studi di Pavia (Italy), from 2011/02 to 2011/07. She finished her BSc in Biotechnology in 2010/07 at Universidade de Aveiro. She has participated as Research Fellow in 2 FCT-funded projects, Post-Doc in 1 project and PhD Researcher in 3 projects. She is currently co-PI of 1 Exploratory FCT project and integrates the team of another 1. She has recently integrated 1 COST Action. During her scientific career, she has published 15 articles in peer-reviewed journals (including 1 review and 1 distinguished with a journal cover; Scopus H-index: 7), 3 book chapters (including 1 encyclopedia entry) and 2 patents. She is currently supervising 1 MSc dissertations in industrial context and has co-supervised 3 MSc theses and 4 final works for BSc conclusion. She has participated in 23 poster communications in national and international conferences, 1 of them awarded with a 2nd place in a Best Poster competition; 8 oral communications in national and international conferences, 1 short video communication (awarded with an honorable mention) in a national conference and 6 invited lectures (including 2 workshops and 3 cycles of conferences in the scope of BSc and MSc subjects). She has also participated in the organization and/or dynamization of several outreaching activities for students from all ages. These outreaching activities are further extended with the publication of a magazine paper for undergraduate students and 2 newspaper opinion articles. She has also complemented her academic path with the participation in several courses and workshops in diverse areas, which are relevant for the career she intends to pursue. More recently, she has engaged in teaching activities and integrated the jury of 5 MSc degrees. She is also an active peer-reviewer for several journals and was invited as an external reviewer for an international project. She works in the area of Natural Sciences with emphasis on Biological Sciences: Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Analytical Chemistry and Organic Chemistry. Areas of interest include: Extreme oxygen-sensitive bacteria; Microencapsulation; Foods; dietary supplements and drugs; Biological and toxicity validation; Lanthipeptides; Lantibiotics; Heterologous Expression; Mass Spectrometry; Antimicrobial Activity; Ribosomal peptides with post-translational modifications; Bacterial Resistance; Biosensor; Bioremediation; Bioactive peptides; Bioengineering; Bioactivity screening.