I am a Clinical Biochemist (2007, School of Chemistry, “Universidad de la República -UDELAR”) that, very early during my educational career, felt attracted and dedicated to performing research on the Medicinal Chemistry field. I got a Master degree (2011, “PEDECIBA - Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas – Química”, UDELAR) upon investigating drugs targeting the causative agent of Chagas´ disease, oriented by the Drs.Hugo Cerecetto and Mercedes González (Medicinal Chemistry Group, Organic Chemistry, School of Science-Chemistry, UDELAR). During this stage a got skills in cell culture and drug screening of natural and synthesis products, rendering in several publications (19), some of them elaborated manuscripts based on the elucidation of the mode of action by metabolomics approaches (Benítez 2011 J Med Chem; Benítez 2011 Med Chem Res; Benítez 2012 Parasitology; Benítez 2014 Parasitology). Then I joined the Laboratory Redox Biology of Trypanosomes (“LBRT, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo-IPMon”) with the aim to participate in different drug discovery projects against the enzyme trypanothione synthetase and trypanosomatid species of biomedical relevance. The projects involved collaborations with several local and international research groups (European Cooperation in Science and Technology - COST Action CM0801 and Action CM1307). Within this highly stimulating context, I performed my PhD (2017, “Programa de Investigación Biomédica – PROINBIO”, UDELAR) under the supervision of Dr. Marcelo Comini. The impact of the studies conducted during my PhD is supported by national (National Meeting of Chemistry Sciences 2011) and international (Calmette and Yersin scholarship and “Actions Concertees Internacionales Pasteuriennes-ACIP” project poster award 17-2015) research honors for our lab. and several publications in peer-reviewed journals in the field of Medicinal Chemistry and Biochemistry (e.g. Maiwald & Benítez 2014 Eur J Med Chem; Sousa 2014 Free Radic Biol Med; Alberca 2016 J Comput Aided Mol Des; Benítez 2016 PLoS Negl Trop Dis; Orban 2016 Bioorg Med Chem; Franco 2017 Eur J Med Chem; Benítez 2020 Chemija; Medeiros & Benítez 2020 J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem; Alice 2021 Mol Divers). Most of the publications rely on strong multidisciplinary approaches. Importantly, during this stage, screening (bio)assays were developed and the know-how was transferred to other research groups. This allowed performing a large drug discovery campaign in collaboration with research groups/technological platforms from our partner Institut Pasteur Korea (Benítez 2022 J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem; Phan 2022 Biochem Biophys Res Commun). Therefore, I contributed to positioning the LBRT as an international reference laboratory for the search and study of inhibitors against trypanothione synthetase. Having successfully completed my PhD, I was awarded with a postdoctoral fellow (2017-2021) from the IPMon to conduct research on the development of bioluminescent-based models for pathogenic trypanosomatids. In the frame of this project, I have generated and characterized bioluminescent cell lines of three different major trypanosomatid species that allowed the development of robust and simple phenotypic drug screening and efficacy studies (Benítez & Dibello 2019 Drug Dev Res; Rivas 2021 Dalton Trans; Dibello 2021 Methods Mol Biol; Benítez 2021 Methods Mol Biol). The implementation of these tools demanded a higher specialization on animal infection models and the gain of knowledge on in vivo imaging technology. These goals were successfully accomplished and collaborative publications with local groups denote the outreach of our expertise (Rivas 2021 Dalton Trans; Prolo 2021 Redox Biol). Last but not least, the bioluminescent infection models represent a milestone for our Laboratory and for the scientific community since they added value to pathophysiological studies (non-invasive/real-time/in-situ monitoring) and refined the mouse infection models, keeping thus pace with ethical statements in animal experimentation. In summary, I have acquired expertise in a wide range of techniques, from Biochemistry (e.g. expression and purification of proteins, enzymology), to cells (culture, flow cytometry, microscopy) up to state-of-the-art in vivo infection models. In order to keep growing professionally, exploit and integrate all the knowledge and tools developed during my postgraduate projects, currently, I am investigating the phenomenon of quiescence in visceral leishmaniasis. The project aims to: i) demonstrate the occurrence of this phenomenon in Leishmania infantum, a lethal intracellular pathogen of international relevance, ii) identify quiescence biomarkers, iii) investigate the link between quiescence and refractoriness to drug treatment and infection relapse, and iv) design and test drug delivery systems effective to eliminate replicative and non-replicative stages of the pathogen in infected animals.