Belém Sampaio Marques graduated in Biology from the University of the Azores in 2003 and obtained a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from the University of Minho in 2012. Between 2013 and 2019, she developed postdoctoral studies on the study and elucidation of mechanisms related to aging and age-related diseases, using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model for neurodegenerative diseases, namely Parkinson¿s disease. Since 2019, she has been working as a Junior Researcher at ICVS and also serves as an Invited Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Minho. Her research focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms and cellular processes of aging and age-related diseases. As of June 2023, she has shifted her research focus towards developing models to study Parkinson disease and exploring the role of the secretome of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in neuroprotection and repair. To date, she has published 63 peer-reviewed articles and 2 book chapter, with over 6500 citations and an h-index of 30 (Scholar). She had led or contributed to multiple projects, presented at national and international conferences, and supervised 20 laboratory rotations, 8 BSc students, 12 MSc students (3 ongoing), and 3 PhD students (2 ongoing). She has been an ad-hoc reviewer for more than 20 journals and some funding agencies. She is also review editor from Stem Cell Research – Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. Belém has been a project reviewer for the National Science Centre (NCN), Poland and Graduate Women in Science (GWIS). Belém received 5 awards and/or honors.