Luisa has developed her graduate studies with Dr. S. Lawrence Zipursky at University of California in Los Angeles and has defended her thesis at the New University of Lisbon. She studied Dscam, a cell surface molecule of the immunoglobulin superfamily that plays an important role in the sculpting of neural circuits. In 2004 she joined the Lab of Dr. Richard Axel at Columbia University. There she identified components of a neural circuit that governs dimorphic sexual behaviour. In 2008 she moved to Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência to start her group focused in the neuronal circuits that control innate behaviors. In 2012 She joined the Champalimaud Research where many group share the scientific interest in the neural underpinning of behavior.