Project Description

Biography:

Marta was born and raised in Almada, a city near Lisbon, Portugal. She holds a BSc in Biological Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, and an MSc in Biomedical Research from Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa. During her master’s thesis at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM), she studied the role of intracellular trafficking in endothelial cells during blood vessel development. It was there that she fell in love with vessel biology and microscopy, because for Marta: seeing it is believing!

Building on this expertise and her interest in cancer metastasis, Marta is now a DC in Mariona Graupera’s Lab at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) in Barcelona, as part of the Adaptmet program. Her project focuses on how breast cancer cells metastasize to bone, investigating the role of specialized bone blood vessels in controlling cancer cell dormancy and metastatic outgrowth. Metastatic disease represents a major challenge, and Marta is excited to contribute to this field.

For Marta, being part of Adaptmet and the Graupera Lab is a unique chance to combine her background in vascular biology with cutting-edge cancer and metastasis research, gain new skills, and contribute to collaborative projects that advance our understanding of metastasis.

Since moving to Barcelona, she has been enjoying the city life, exploring its neighborhoods and all the coffee shops, and is excited to see where this new chapter will take her, both in science and in life.