Luísa V. Lopes is a Group leader Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM, Portugal). Her current work focuses on understanding the mechanisms inducing the "early-aging" of the cognitive function. Her lab has provided evidence for an important contribution of adenosine receptors in pathophysiological context, and their impact in noxious brain conditions such as stress, aging and neurodegeneration, being awarded by FEBS, FENS and EMBO. Luisa is a Biochemistry graduate from Univ. Lisbon (1998) and then pursued a PhD in Neurosciences being trained at the University of Cambridge, UK and at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. She acquired postdoctoral experience in a company setting (Nestlé Research Center; Switzerland) studying brain-gut interactions with particular focus on early-life stress. Luisa established her own research group@iMM in 2013, as recipient of an Investigator FCT position. Her contribution includes pinpointing circadian disorders as a trigger for accelerated cognitive loss (Mol. Psychiatry, 2013; Scientific Reports, 2016), establishing one of the underlying mechanisms for early synaptic degeneration in the hippocampus (Nature Neuroscience, 2017); and most recently, evidence of a neuro-immune link in short-term memory (Sci Immunol, 2019; Cell Reports 2021). Her work is currently focused on implementing novel ageing-equivalent models to study human synaptic function (Mol. Psychiatry 2018; Cell Rep 2019). She has authored more than 60 papers in international peer-reviewed journals with over 3000 citations. Luisa served as a Board Member of Portuguese Society for Neuroscience (2008-2011), she is the Founder of the SFN-Lx Chapter, and got an award from DANA Alliance for her work in raising public awareness for brain research. In 2019, Luisa was one of the awardees of the Interstellar Initiative for Healthy Aging, promoted by the New York Academy of Sciences and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development.