Helena began her studies with a Bachelor degree in Biochemistry at University of Minho, followed by a Master program in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto (FCUP)/Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute (ICBAS). Her master thesis was developed at the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC), under supervision of Nuno Lages Alves. She then moved to Budapest, Hungary, where she enrolled in an internship at the Research & Development department of SOLVO Biotechnology company. Afterwards, she joined the Genetic Dynamics of Cancer Cells group to study the yin and the yang of somatic mutations in cancer immunosurveillance, where she is now developing her PhD thesis on the role of intra-tumor heterogeneity in cancer immunosurveillance under the supervision of José Carlos Machado.