Joana Gomes is BSc in Biochemistry by the University of Porto (2005), MSc in Molecular and Oncology Medicine by the Medical Faculty of University of Porto and, in 2012, obtained an International joint PhD degree in Biomedicine (University of Porto, Portugal) and Microbiology (University Paris XI, France) under the supervision of Prof. Celso Reis (Ipatimup, Porto) and Prof. Eliette Touati (Institut Pasteur, Paris). Since 2007, Joana Gomes has the accreditation of Direcção Geral de Veterinária as a competent person for animal experiments (FELASA Category C).

Joana Gomes is currently a researcher at the Glycobiology in Cancer group, at IPATIMUP/I3S, University of Porto, focusing her research in understanding the glycosylation of protein receptors in gastrointestinal cancer for the identification of novel biomarkers for tumour diagnosis and targeted cancer therapy. She is deeply involved in the coordination of the clinical samples and its data analysis as well as the experimental procedures using gastrointestinal mice models available in the group.

Joana Gomes is co-author of 38 peer-reviewed publications (H-index 21) and has participated in several research projects financed by national and international institutions.