Gloria Cruz Ferreira, Ph.D. is Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, USF Morsani College of Medicine; affiliate faculty, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences; and courtesy faculty, Department of Global Health, College of Public Health. Dr. Ferreira is well known for her breakthroughs on heme biosynthesis and iron and heme metabolism-important biological processes that enable oxygen transport in the blood, maintenance of critical iron reservoirs, support of cellular respiration, and function of certain enzymes and transporters, among many other functions. If heme biosynthesis becomes dysfunctional, it can lead to a group of rare disorders called porphyrias-encompassing neurological, mental and photosensitivity symptoms, among others. Dr. Ferreira was the first to develop an expression system for the first enzyme of this pathway: 5-aminolevulinate synthase (ALAS), which permitted her and her research group to characterize the reaction mechanism, architecture and folding of enzyme, opening the field to new opportunities for investigation. Dr. Ferreira is also credited with the development of biophysical and biochemical approaches to investigate, at a molecular level, the terminal enzyme of the heme biosynthetic pathway, ferrochelatase, among many other discoveries. Her investigations characterizing the molecular basis of heme-related disorders, such as porphyrias, have led to her development of several potential therapies-for which she holds two patents. She was elected 2002 chair of the prestigious Gordon Research Conference; and received the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award and American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Award, among others. She earned her Licenciatura (equivalent of B.S. plus M.S. degrees) from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and her doctorate from the University of Georgia. She was a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellow at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.