Raquel Costa holds a BSc and a MSc in Biochemistry, both from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. In 2017, she obtained her PhD in Metabolism from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP). Then, she was granted with a contract as invited assistant researcher in the Structured Program in bioengineered therapies for infectious diseases and tissue regeneration, funded by N2020, at FMUP and Instituto de Investigação em Saúde (i3S). Over the last years, she developed expertise in the field of diabetes and polyphenols, broadening the knowledge on the molecular mechanisms involved in diabetic metabolic and microvascular deregulation. 

Currently, she is a Co-PI of a funded project envisioning the application of a biopolymer as a scaffold to be used in wound healing. Additionally, she is involved in a translational research with an interventional clinical study “XAN4Health” funded by a European Food Company, aiming to study the effect of the polyphenol xanthohumol on the Metabolic Syndrome progression, a disease interrelated with diabetes. She established international collaborations at University of Vienna and University of Santiago de Compostela, with experts in innovative oxidative stress measurements and specialized cell culture assays. 

Since the beginning of her research career, she was involved in several research projects which resulted in 33 original papers (h index of 16). She also published 2 book chapters and presented her work in numerous national and international scientific meetings and won 11 best presentation awards. She was also invited to deliver classes (including the coordination of a curricular unit on Angiogenesis and Metabolism), seminars, workshops (1 international) in post-graduation national courses and was a member of the scientific and organizing committees of an international symposium on metabolism. For her expertise on metabolic disease and the discoveries in the crosstalk between angiogenesis and metabolism, she is guest editing of two special issues: “Metabesity and Tissue Regeneration” in Int J Mol Sci (IF 4.183) and "Women in Vascular Disease: from Pathology to Regenerative Engineering" in Biomolecules (IF 4.082) and is referee for 7 international ISI indexed journals.