Raquel Sá-Leão is graduated in Applied Chemistry / Biotechnology by Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. In 2002, she completed her PhD in Biology/Molecular Biology at Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (ITQB NOVA). Since then, she authored and co-authored near 60 peer-reviewed publications, with more than 2600 citations.

From 2007 to 2014 she was member of the Executive Committee of the ESGEM (ESCMID Study Group on Epidemiological Markers) of European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. She was also member of Scientific Council of ITQB NOVA (2013-2016).

Currently, Raquel Sá-Leão is Secretary of the General Assembly of the Portuguese Society for Microbiology and effective member of the Technical Vaccination Commission from Direção Geral da Saúde (General Health Directorate that belongs to the Ministry of Health). She is also Assistant Professor at Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa and Group Leader of the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology of Human Pathogens, ITQB NOVA.

Her current research interests are focused on multivalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines that have been recently introduced in several countries. She is studying how these vaccines, together with antibiotic use, impact the pneumococcal population and the nasopharyngeal ecosystem as a whole. Depending on local vaccine coverage, antibiotic use, circulating strains and relationship between competitors, different outcomes in colonization and disease overall may be observed. These studies are contributing to estimate the medium and long-term public health impact of the use of vaccines and antibiotics.

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