Joana Carvalho graduated in Biochemistry by the University of Coimbra, in 2006 and holds a PhD in Biomedicine from the University of Porto, Portugal.  Joana's PhD work highlighted microRNA-mediated mechanisms regulating E-cadherin expression in Gastric Cancer and revealed the impact of somatic CDH1 alterations in the prognosis and survival of Gastric Cancer patients. As a Post-doc fellow at Ipatimup, Joana became interested on studying the role of exosomes in biological processes underlying cancer progression and metastasis, and their value as tools to identify molecular signatures to monitor tumor relapse and/or treatment response of Gastric Cancer patients. During this time, Joana became a Member of the management committee of the European Network on Microvesicles and Exosomes on Health and Disease (COST Action BM1202) and published together with other members two highly cited review papers. Joana is currently a Junior Researcher at the Epithelial Interactions in Cancer Group (EPiC), i3S/Ipatimup. Her current research focus on studying the crosstalk between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment. In particular she aims to dissect how oncogenic signaling affects such interactions, and how this crosstalk impacts disease progression and therapy resistance. Joana has an h-index of 16 and her work has been translated into the publication of 26 peer review articles and four book chapters.