[1] João Lobo Antunes was born in Lisbon as the second of six sons of João Alfredo de Figueiredo Lobo Antunes (born 1915), prominent Neurologist and Professor, close collaborator of Egas Moniz, Nobel prize of physiology, and wife Margarida da Beira Cardoso de Melo Machado, daughter of Joaquim José Machado, 70th, 82nd and 91st Governor of Mozambique and 110th Governor of Portuguese India, and wife Mariana Cardoso de Melo.

His great-grandfather in male line was an illegitimate son of Bernardo António de Brito Antunes, 1st Viscount of Nazaré.

He then went to the United States, and worked in the Department of Neurosurgery of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and taught at the Columbia University.

He is the author of more than 150 scientific articles and wrote 4 books: "A way to be" (Um Modo de Ser), "In a happy city" (Numa cidade feliz), "NY Memories and other essays" (Memória de Nova Iorque e outros ensaios) and "About the hand and other essays" (Sobre a mão e outros ensaios).

[1] He was Professor of Neurosurgery in the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon, Director of the Department of Neurosurgery of the Saint Mary Hospital (Hospital de Santa Maria) in Lisbon and was the President of the Portuguese Academy of Medicine.