Leonor Saúde has a PhD in Developmental Biology from University College London (UK) and a post-doctoral degree from the Gulbenkian Institute of Science. She got her Master’s degree in Biochemical Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico and her Bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of Aveiro.
Leonor set up her laboratory at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in 2005. She then transferred to the Institute of Molecular Medicine (now the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine) in 2008 to head a research team.
In addition, she has also held the positions of Director of the Zebrafish Unit (2008-2024), member of the Executive Committee of the Training Hub (2016-2024), Commissioner of the Communications Office (2021-2024) and represented the Research Council at the iMM General Assembly (2022-2024).
Leonor is a visiting associate professor at the University of Lisbon School of Medicine, where she is on the Committee for Gender Equality, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination, as well as the Scientific Committee for the Master’s programme in Biomedical Research. She is also one of the founders of the Portuguese Society for Developmental Biology (SPBD), where she has been the president (2015-2017) and has also held other positions.

Last updated: October 2025