Joana Tavares graduated in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2003 and received in 2008 a PhD degree in Biochemistry by the University of Porto. From 2009 to 2013 she conducted post-doctoral research at Pasteur Institute in Paris. She was from 2003 to 2007 Instructor at the Biochemistry department of the Faculty Pharmacy University of Porto and from 2007 to 2011 Invited Assistant of Immunology. J. Tavares has been research associate at the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC), University of Porto, since 2013. She has been working with protozoan parasites responsible for important human diseases such as Leishmania, Trypanosoma brucei and Plasmodium. She has contributed to the identification of potential drug targets in Trypanosomatids and to the search for target specific inhibitors. More recently, she became an expert on live imaging, including intravital confocal microscopy to dissect in mice the mechanisms used by parasites to overcome host defenses.