Daniela Cunha-Garcia graduated in Applied Biology from the University of Minho (UM) in 2017. Then, she volunteered as a trainee at the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS, UM), working in neurodegenerative diseases, more specifically with the Machado-Joseph disease (MJD). She integrated the project entitled: “Pathogenesis and Therapeutics of Machado-Joseph disease”. Her participation in this project was focused on testing and develop therapeutic approaches for MJD. She finished her MSc in Health Sciences (University of Minho) in 2021, with the thesis entitled:” Impact of astrocytic calcium suppression in the pathogenesis of Machado-Joseph disease”. In her master thesis, she focused on the study of the involvement of (dys)functional astrocytes in the onset and progression of MJD. During these periods, she was a co-author in 2 research articles in peer-reviewed journals (Molecular Neurobiology IF=4.6 and Neuroscience IF=3.1), one of which as a second author. She also worked as a researcher in an ongoing study under the project “Determining the Efficacy of NLX-112 in a Mouse Experimental Model of Cerebellar Ataxia”. Currently she is a PhD student at the ICVS (Life and Health Sciences Research Institute), integrated in the Translational Neurogenetics research team. She is focused on exploring the involvement of muscular pathology in Machado-Joseph disease and its potential as an early biomarker of the disease.