Raquel Lourenço obtained a PhD in Developmental Biology from Universidade Nova de Lisboa in 2011, where she investigated the mechanisms controlling left–right asymmetry during vertebrate embryonic development. During her postdoctoral career, her research interests expanded to sensory organ development (Institut de Biologie de l’École Normale Supérieure, Paris), and later to tissue regeneration (NOVA Medical School, Lisboa). She has extensive experience using zebrafish as a model organism and has contributed to studies on bone and retinal regeneration, with a particular interest in uncovering the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive tissue repair and regenerative responses.
At NOVA IMSB, she is an Assistant Researcher whose work focuses on regenerative biology and organoid models. She investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms that enable retinal regeneration, with particular emphasis on how metabolic reprogramming influences epigenetic regulation and gene expression programmes that drive tissue repair and regeneration. By combining regenerative animal models with human retinal organoids, she aims to identify mechanisms that may be harnessed to promote retinal repair in mammals. In addition to her research activities, she contributes to the supervision and mentoring of students, postgraduate teaching, science outreach initiatives, and the organisation of scientific events that foster collaboration within the research community.