Mafalda Fonseca holds a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Coimbra and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a focus on Immunology from the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute, Oporto University. Her postdoctoral project in Clinical Immunology was conducted at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Beira Interior (UBI) in Covilhã, with part of the research performed at the Department of Immunology, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Since 2004, she has been a lecturer at UBI’s Faculty of Health Sciences, teaching in the Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, and Biochemistry programs. Mafalda's current research interests focus on dissecting the role of immune cells and cell-cell communication mechanisms in chronic inflammatory conditions, such as Multiple Sclerosis and chronic kidney disease.