ParedesJoana Portugal

Joana Paredes is a Principal Investigator and Group Leader of the Cancer Metastasis Group at i3S, Porto, Portugal. She is also Affiliated Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and member of the Scientific Committee of the European Network for Breast Development and Cancer (ENBDC). Her research primarily focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the metastatic capacity of tumor cells, emphasizing their ability to communicate with each other and with their microenvironment. The goal is to identify new biomarkers for diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment response in metastatic breast cancer. Joana Paredes holds a degree in Biology from the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and a Ph.D. in Human Biology from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (Portugal). For four years, she worked at the Cancer Research Lab of Ghent University (Belgium) and at Ipatimup (Porto, Portugal). She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Oncobiology at ICVS, University of Minho (Portugal), and began her independent research career in 2010 at Ipatimup, supported by the Ciência 2007 and FCT Investigator programs. She secured a permanent position in 2018 and became a group leader in 2021 at i3S. According to Scopus, Joana Paredes is the co-author of 93 peer-reviewed publications in international journals, with over 5200 citations and an h-index of 43. Her results have been published in prominent cancer research journals, including Cancer Research, Oncogene, Clinical Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Research, BBA Reviews on Cancer, Stem Cells, Journal of Pathology, Oncotarget, BMC Cancer, The Lancet Oncology, Gastroenterology, Gut, and Human Molecular Genetics. Joana Paredes also was the President of ASPIC (Portuguese Association for Cancer Research) from 2000 to 2024. In 2024, she was awarded as an Inspiring Woman in Science.