Cecília Durães is currently a Post Doctoral researcher at Ipatimup. She graduated in Biology from the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) and obtained an MSc in Plant Biology from the same university in collaboration with The Natural History Museum London (NHM), UK. She obtained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh, UK and NHM, with a thesis research project on evolutionary biology and population genetics of islands plants and ecosystems. Given her background in population genetics and evolution, she joined Ipatimup in 2006 initiating her research on genetic susceptibility to gastric cancer and other inflammation-related complex diseases. Her present research involves the study of clonal evolution of gastric premalignant conditions, tumour heterogeneity and progression, employing NGS technology. Further research interests include the interplay of cancer genetics and immunosurveillance. She has acquired relevant expertise in biostatistics and scientific writing.