Cristiana Vilela completed a bachelor's degree in biochemistry at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (2017–2021). To fulfill the requirements of her degree, she did her internship project at the Endocrine and Metabolic Research Group in the Unit for Multidisciplinary Research in Biomedicine (UMIB) at ICBAS, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto. In September 2021, she began her master's degree in health biochemistry, specializing in clinical and metabolic biochemistry, at the School of Health (Polytechnic Institute of Porto). Due to her interest in Parkinson's disease, she initiated her master's thesis in 2022 at the Research Center for Translational Health and MedicalBiotechnology, under the supervision of Doctor Fábio Teixeira, where her research work focused on the relationship between the gut microbiome and Parkinson's disease. These research experiences gave her hands on expertise in cellular and molecular biology procedures. In November 2023, she defended her dissertation, for which she obtained a 19/20 grade. Her project has opened up new perspectives on the role of PD as a multisystemic disorder, namely the intrinsic relationship between the brain and the gut (manuscript in preparation). After finishing her dissertation, she was invited as a guest assistant professor at the School of Health of the Polytechnic of Porto, in the areas of chemical analysis and molecular biology. In order to pursue her research career, in February 2024, she was accepted as a PhD student in Advanced Biotechnology in University of Vigo, Spain. In parallel, in April 2024, she also began a research scholarship at TBIO, where she is currently developing research in the PD context. Furthermore, over the last couple of months and in line with the work she has been doing for the last two years, she submitted, as a first author, a scientific publication entitled “From the Gut to the Brain: Is the microbiome a new paradigm in Parkinson’s Disease Treatment?” which is currently under the peer-review process (cells-2970651).