Raquel Aires-Barros is a Full Professor at the Department of Bioengineering at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) and Senior Researcher at Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB), Associate Laboratory i4HB—Institute for Health and Bioeconomy. She is a Chemical Engineering from IST, with a MSc in Biochemical Engineering and a Ph.D. both at IST. Was a Research Assistant in Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1986-1987. Coordinates the scientific-pedagogical area of Biomolecular and Bioprocessing Engineering of Bioengineering Department at IST and is Vice-President of IST School Board. Current research interests include the development of new separation processes with high performance and efficiency for purification biopharmaceuticals, with special emphasis on the purification of antibodies and the development of devices- "Lab-on-a-Chip" - for protein purification / separation of cells in the microscale. She is chair of the Session of Downstream Processing (DSP) of the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences (ESBES), President of the Portuguese Society for Biotechnology and editor of Separation and Purification Technology Journal. Has been involved in the coordination/participation of several European projects, and in Scientific and Organising Committees of International Conferences in the area of biosseparation. Supervised more than 70 masters and PhD dissertations and is author of more than 200 papers and book chapters.