Elvira Pequeno Leites is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the ICVS, University of Minho, where she investigates Machado-Joseph disease (MJD), also known as spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3). Her current research focuses on identifying mechanisms that enhance ataxin-3 degradation, with the aim of reducing its accumulation and aggregation and contributing to the development of new therapeutic strategies for MJD.

She obtained her PhD from the University of Lisbon, where she studied the role of PINK1 in mitochondrial quality control and neurodegeneration. During her PhD and subsequent postdoctoral research at Instituto de Medicina Molecular and the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, she investigated cellular mechanisms involved in neurodegeneration using molecular and cellular approaches and neuronal and glial models. This work provided her with broad experience in cell culture, primary neural cultures, protein analysis, microscopy, and disease-relevant experimental models.

Earlier in her career, during her MSc at Janssen Pharmaceutica, she studied the regulation of tau degradation through the ubiquitin-proteasome system and autophagy and its impact on tau aggregation. Across her research experience, she has used molecular and cellular approaches to investigate disease-related mechanisms, with a particular focus on neurodegenerative diseases. Her work has been guided by the goal of understanding the biological mechanisms underlying disease and, ultimately, contributing to the development of therapeutic strategies.