Helena comes from Braga, Portugal. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry at the University of Minho, where she later pursued a Master's in Health Sciences with a specialization in Neurosciences. Her MSc thesis explored the therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes in Parkinson’s disease

Afterwards, Helena worked for 3 years as a Research Fellow at the 3B’s Research Group, contributing to the ERC-funded project “Engineered Capillary Beds for Successful Prevascularization of Tissue Engineering Constructs”.

In 2023, Helena transitioned to the cellular agriculture field, joining Mosa Meat (Maastricht, Netherlands) as a Junior Scientist in the Bioprocess Development team. Over one year, she gained expertise in upstream bioprocess development and optimization for mammalian cell cultures.

In October 2024, she enrolled in a PhD at MERLN institute to work on the FAB4FUTURE project under the supervision of Matt Baker and Lorenzo Moroni. Her research focuses on developing a biofabrication toolbox that enables the scaling up of 3D cultivated meat production.