Duarte C. Barral is a tenured Associate Professor at NOVA Medical School, NOVA University of Lisbon. His group studies the regulation of membrane traffic by small GTPases of the Rab and Arf families, and has characterized several molecular mechanisms involved in skin pigmentation, namely melanin secretion by melanocytes, transfer to keratinocytes, and processing by keratinocytes. His team also validated a reconstructed pigmented skin model that faithfully reproduces the human skin pigmentation mechanisms.