Manuela Brás was born on March 6th, 1972 (Lisboa). She graduated in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (1995) and obtained her MSc in Biomedical Engineering (2001) both in the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP). Her first job was in the mechanical industry (A. Brito Engrenagens, Lda) where she was the head of the Quality department. She started her work at INEB in 1996 with a fellowship provided by the FCT, as a laboratory technician. In 1999, she was hired by INEB. Actually, she is the Head of Biointerfaces and Nanotechnology scientific platform, at i3S. In March of 2023, she obtained her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at FEUP, with the thesis “Mechanobiology of cancer cells using atomic force microscopy”.