Sofia T. Quintas is currently a PhD candidate at ICBAS, University of Porto (BiotechHealth programme). Sofia's PhD work is funded by a PhD grant from FCT. Sofia is developing her work at Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (i3S), in Tumor and Microenvironment Interactions group, being focused on developing new therapies for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Sofia has published one review article related to her work as first author: "Emerging Nanotechnologies for triple-negative breast cancer" (IF= 15.153, 2021) and has presented her PhD project entitled "HI-FORCE: Engineering Hybrid Extracellular Vesicles For Breast Cancer Vaccine" at the X BiotechHealth Annual Symposium, at ICBAS, Porto. Sofia has also collaborated in two other projects on vaccines development and on therapeutics in breast cancer.

In September 2018, Sofia enrolled in the MSc in Medicine and Molecular Oncology, at Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Porto (FMUP). Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Sofia successfully completed her MSc in November 2020 with an overall score of 19/20, and 20/20 on her master thesis presentation. During her MSc, Sofia worked at i3S, at the Intercellular Communication and Cancer Group, on a project centered on the role of cancer exosomes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma establishment and progression and their immunomodulatory role. Her MSc thesis was entitled "The Immunomodulation Potential of Pancreatic Cancer Exosomes".  As outputs from this work, Sofia was able to present 2 posters and 1 oral communication in iMED Conference® 12.0 | LISBON 2020, granted by AstraZeneca Foundation, and in YES Meeting and IJUP, both granted by University of Porto (respectively). Sofia has also completed training in laboratory animal science at the levels (A) and (D) - Mice and Rat Specific, according to directive 2010/63/EU (FELASA Category B) and acquired practical training in orthotopic and engineered mouse models of pancreatic cancer. Sofia has as well published 1 review article as co-first author, entitled "The Interplay of Exosomes and NK Cells in Cancer Biology" (Cancers, IF= 6.575), being cited more than 20 times. In December 2020, Sofia started working for Pharmis Biofarmacêutica (project being developed at i3S), testing an antibody in vitro and in vivo in pancreatic cancer mouse models. Sofia has also collaborated in several translational projects and, particularly, with gastroenterologists from Hospital S. João, being co-author on a paper on their main findings "Exosomal glypican-1 is elevated in pancreatic cancer precursors and can signal genetic predisposition in the absence of endoscopic ultrasound abnormalities" (World Journal of Gastroenterology, IF=5.374, 2021), and with her colleagues, being a manuscript related to that work currently on submission. 

Sofia T. Quintas had previously enrolled in the bachelor's degree on Microbiology, at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, where she was introduced to concepts in the fields of microbiology, molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, and basic and clinical research. She rapidly discovered her passion for research and therapeutics. Consequently, Sofia developed her BSc final project on ultra-rapid bacterial susceptibility testing of ceftolozane-tazobactam, through a flow cytometry assay directly from positive blood cultures, supervised by Prof. Cidália Pina-Vaz. From this work resulted a manuscript published in the Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. "Evaluation of ultra-rapid susceptibility testing of ceftolozane-tazobactam by a flow cytometry assay directly from positive blood cultures"(IF= 5.103, 2021). She also presented a poster as an output of this work in a conference organized by the American Society for Microbiology, USA.