Ana Raquel P. Santa Maria received her B.S. in Engineering, and her M.S. in Biological Engineering from Algarve University, Portugal. During her M.S. she was awarded an Erasmus scholarship to perform the research for her master dissertation at Groningen University, Netherlands. After, she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN scholarship, within the BtRAIN consortium to perform her Ph.D. studies at the Biological Research Centre in Szeged, Hungary. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from Szeged University, Hungary. Recently she joined as a Postdoctoral fellow in the Brain targeting Program in the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. She is performing proteomic and transcriptomic investigations of human endothelial cells from the brain microvasculature and other organs with the aim to identify new candidate targets for improved brain targeting. Outside the lab, she loves teaching and communicating science to non-scientists. Teaching has been part of her life since the first year at the university, from summer camps to international science communication competitions, Ana loves to guide and motivate young students to follow their dreams.