I have training in cells biology, including cellular and molecular neurobiology, developmental biology and oncology, which provide the expertise necessary to successfully contribute to the proposed project. During my postdoctoral training I spearheaded a project to investigate how tumor-derived exosomes induce a series of cell-to-cell signaling and tissue remodelling events that support liver metastasis, showing for the first time the detailed mechanism of hepatic pre-metastatic niches formation (Costa-Silva et al, Nature Cell Biology, 2015). In addition, I participated on the first description of genomic double-stranded DNA packaging in tumor-derived exosomes and co-first authored a project, which showed that particular exosomal integrins define the tissue affinity of tumor-derived exosomes and as consequence tumor organotropism (Hoshino, Costa-Silva et al., Nature, 2015). Since 2016, as a group leader at Champalimaud Foundation, I maintain productive collaborations with our Clinical Center and other European institutions, as a member since 2019 of the recently founded European Liquid Biopsies Society. In the last few years our group has focused on identifying new or poorly understood biological functions of EVs, issues we believe may impact all diseases (oncologic or not) mediated by EVs.