Gabriela Veríssimo Rodrigues is a PhD candidate in Biomedicine and Health Sciences at the School of Medicine, University of Minho (Braga, Portugal). She integrates the Translational Neurogenetics Research Team at ICVS (Life and Health Sciences Research Institute). Her research focuses on Machado-Joseph disease (MJD/SCA3), a neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the ATXN3 gene. Her PhD project aims to explore the role of somatic CAG repeat instability in MJD progression and investigate the mismatch repair protein MSH3 as a potential therapeutic target. By genetically modulating MSH3 and its regulator FAN1, the project seeks to understand their impact on CAG somatic mosaicism and disease severity. Gabriela contributes to the development of therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative diseases through the integration of molecular genetics, biotechnology and in vivo studies. She holds a M.Sc. in Biotechnology for Health Sciences (2023) from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. Her master’s thesis focused on the characterization of satellite DNA sequences associated with human Robertsonian translocations. To strengthen her background, she has completed advanced training in Neuroscience, Genetics and Molecular Biology in Biomedicine, and Animal Experimentation (FELASA C certified), now applying these skills to Neurogenetics research. To date, she has the first authorship and co-authorship of 2 scientific articles, 1 online resource, 5 posters published at national scientific meetings and collaborated in the UTAD Covid-19 Task Force.