Raquel Portela is a Researcher at the Microbial Stress Lab hosted at Unidade de Ciências Biomoleculares Aplicadas (UCIBIO/FCT- NOVA). Raquel performed her MSc in the epidemiology of nosocomial enterococci and finished her PhD in Biology, var. Molecular Biology at NOVA School of Science and Technologies, (FCT-NOVA), in 2019, with the thesis entitled: "New studies in the resistance to beta-lactams and in cell wall damage survival in Staphylococcus aureus: an integrated approach." Her main scientific interests are in the field of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Molecular Bacteriology namely: ROS detoxification, antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, peptidoglycan biosynthesis, stringent response, transcription regulation, genetic competence and bacterial rheology. Raquel has authored 7 peer-reviewed journal articles and 7 conference proceedings among which 12 as first-author; currently, she has one publication, as first author, under minor revisions at Microbiology Spectrum Journal [Q1, IF: 7.17], and other publication submitted at Cellulose Journal [Q1, IF: 4.80]. Raquel has participated in 9 national and international research projects and supervised more than 10 undergraduate and 3 master students. Her work was presented in 10 oral presentations in conferences and seminars and in 29 communications in panel in National and International conferences. She is an ad-hoc reviewer for PeerJ and PLOS ONE, has participated in master thesis and undergraduated examinations and was a reviewer of international grants. Raquel was recently awarded with a Research Grant from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. ESCMID Research Grant 2022.