Débora Nogueira was born in São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. She completed a B.Sc. in Biology at the Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes in 2005. As an undergraduate student, she worked for one year and a half at Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, with pharmacology and published an article with paw edema in mice. In August 2006, she went to the Universidade de São Paulo to start studying harvestmen under the supervision of Glauco Machado.