Rita Silva

I’m a neuroscientist with more than 5 years of experience in the chronic pain field working at places such as FMUP, King’s College London and Eli Lilly and Company. Gained knowledge and expertise in the antibody discovery and engineering field during the 3 years spent at FairJourney Biologics. Life Sciences appeared in my life very early on - it all started when I joined my local fire station as a volunteer firefighter where I ended up dedicating my weekends and night shifts for almost 10 years. Then, and in between, I went to college for Biochemistry and Neurobiology, juggling between my BSc and MSc and a part-time job at my local supermarket to make some money.In 2019, I moved to London for my PhD at King's College London to study pain mechanisms in Alzheimer’s disease. I worked at Eli Lilly and Company where I gained knowledge on slice eletrophysiology (MEA) as well as in setting organotypic cultures as part of a MSCA ITN fellowship. At Lilly, got to experience and learn the drug discovery and development processes.Returned home after almost 4 years abroad, joined FairJourney Biologics as a research associate to deepen my knowledge in the antibody discovery and engineering field. Moved quickly from performing experiments in lab to managing several research projects and a team of 3, resulting in good results.