I tend to take a different tack on intelligent life.
The last thing we need to find is intelligent life. We need life we can eat. As it is the vegans are already afraid we’ll be carnivores in space.
I wouldn’t count on being able to eat anything we find. Your biology would likely have more in common with a tree, than with any alien plant or animal. Makes the nutritional value of any alien life doubtful.
A biologist might know more about that though.