Rúben Dourado completed his Bachelor's degree in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2022 at NOVA School of Science and Technology (FCT-Nova), in Lisbon. During his Bachelor’s internship, he joined the Laboratory of Cilia Regulation and Disease led by Susana Lopes at CEDOC-NMS, where he participated in the creation of primary ciliary dyskinesia zebrafish models that serve as a discovery platform for possible treatment strategies for patients with this rare genetic disease. At that same university, Rúben obtained his MSc in Molecular Genetics and Biomedicine in 2024. He developed his Master’s thesis in joint collaboration between the Human Genetics and Cancer Therapeutics Lab led by Alexandra Fernandes at FCT-Nova and the Nanomedicine lab led by Pedro Viana Baptista, spending a year validating a rapid and cost-effective molecular technique to detect KRAS mutations, with the vision to aid disease monitoring in patients with pancreatic cancer.

In October 2025, Rúben joined the Cancer Dormancy & Immunity Laboratory at the Champalimaud Foundation as a Research Assistant, where he is involved in multiple research projects by giving the necessary support to experiments, animal work and laboratory organization.