Ana Silva is graduated in Biology and Geology at the University of Minho, and holds a Master’s degree in Applied Biochemistry, with specialization in Biomedicine, in the same University, with a final score of 18 (out of 20). During the last two years, she was a researcher at the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), University of Minho, in which she developed her master’s thesis project (19 out of 20), entitled “Pre-clinical pharmacology of the monocarboxylate transporter 1 inhibitor AZD3965 in bladder cancer”, supervised by Dr. Julieta Afonso and co-supervised by Dr. Ana Preto. This project aimed to evaluate the anticancer activity of AZD3965, a specific MCT1 inhibitor, in bladder cancer cell lines, by firstly comparing the metabolic differences between non-neoplastic ad neoplastic cell lines regarding protein and gene expression levels and lactate production. Then, she tested AZD3965 in muscle-invasive bladder cancer cell lines in vitro and in vivo, and combined AZD3965 with cisplatin . She acquired practice in several in vitro techniques (cell culture, RT-qPCR, immunofluorescence, Western Blot) and biological functional assays . Additionally, she acquired expertise in in vivo assays, as she used the CAM model for evaluating tumor growth and angiogenic capabilities, and used immunohistochemistry for proliferation and angiogenic markers evaluation. She was awarded a PhD scholarship in 2022 funded by FCT.