Sofia Duque Santos graduated in Biochemistry in 2000 at University of Porto. Her initial research studies, were in Stockholm University, Sweden, under the ERASMUS mobility program.

After, SD Santos developed her Ph.D. in the Neuroscience field, at Amyloid Unit, IBMC, Porto, focusing on a neurodegenerative disease of the PNS - Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy (FAP). SD Santos studied the stress response, the ubiquitin proteasome system and the unfolded protein response in FAP mice models. During her Ph.D., she went to Columbia University (USA) , to further study transthyretin (TTR) amyloidogenesis.

As a Postdoctoral researcher, in 2005, at the Molecular Neurobiology group, SD Santos focused on Brain research, including molecules involved in injury and repair during the ischemic pathological cascade.

Later, as an assistant researcher at the Glial Cell Biology group, she addressed the mechanisms of Rho GTPases signaling (Rac1 and RhoA) by using inducible and conditional gene ablation technology in mice, with focal permanent brain ischemia.

SD Santos moved to the nanobiomaterial targeted therapies group, at INEB/i3S, in 2015, to start in vivo pre-clinical studies in Stroke, using nucleic acids as neurotherapeutics for RNAi, delivered with biocompatible nanobiomaterials such as a chitosan-derivative and dendrimers.

SD Santos' research for Neuroscience in general and the brain in particular is targetd to reach relevant knowledge for nanobiomedicine towards neuroprotection and neurorepair in Stroke.