Sofia Friães was born in Aldeias (Armamar, Portugal) in 1991. In 2009, she started her Degree in Biochemistry at the university of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Vila Real, Portugal) where she graduated in 2012. Three years later she obtained finished master’s studies in Biochemistry from the same University. During her master she developed a research project, under the supervision of Lucinda Reis and Amélia Silva, dedicated to the synthesis of new organic compounds based on asymmetric squarylic cyanines, for their application in cancer photodynamic therapy. She also studied the effectiveness of the synthesized compounds through in vitro assays, using cancer cell lines. In 2016, she joined the group of Beatriz Royo at ITQB NOVA (Portugal), granted with an FCT fellowship (BI for Master holders of the Research Unit Bioresources 4 Sustainability) to work in the area of organometallic catalysis. In particular, in the development of inexpensive and non-toxic catalysts (based on manganese and iron metals) for the synthesis of biologically relevant organic compounds. Two years later (2018) she enrolled in PhD in Sustainable Chemistry (PDQS), at ITQB-NOVA, under the supervision of Beatriz Royo and Luís Branco, where she obtained her PhD title in 2022. Her PhD studies were granted with a fellowship obtained in a competitive call funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). The main goals of her PhD studies were the development of a new family of phosphine-free manganese and rhenium complexes based on triazole-derived and triazolylidene organic ligands and their application in catalysis, namely in CO2 activation and in borrowing hydrogen processes. During 2023, she proceeded the studies in Borrowing Hydrogen approach, under the guidance of Beatriz Royo, as post-doctoral fellow. Currently, she is a post-doctoral research at the University of Alcalá (Spain), under the guidance of Alberto Hernán-Gómez, working on the preparation of mono- and multimetallic low-valent Ti complexes supported by bridging and redox active ligands for the activation of small molecules

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