Patricia Monteiro

• Research Group Leader, Department of Biomedicine, University of Porto, Portugal 2022-present
• Invited Assistant Professor, ICVS, University of Minho, Portugal 2020-2022
• Research Group Leader, ICVS, University of Minho, Portugal 2018
• Postdoctoral fellow, ICVS, University of Minho, Portugal 2016-2018
• PhD in Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA 2015
• Undergraduate studies in Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal 2007

Optogenetics is a recent neuromodulation technique that takes advantage of genetically encoded light-sensors (microbial opsins) to induce light activation or silencing of defined neuronal populations in the brain. Using electrophysiology recordings and optogenetic tools as a “remote control” to turn on/off individual brain circuits, Dr. Patricia Monteiro will register neuronal activity in brain areas impacted by stress and will test the causality between brain circuit-activation and behavioral response. This approach will pave the way towards novel therapeutic approaches and will provide insights into how stress impacts brain networks across rodents and humans.

Dr. Monteiro studies how cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo circuits encode and decode information in the brain and how disruption of these circuits can lead to disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Simultaneously, Dr. Monteiro’s lab also develops new technologies with translational potential to monitor and modulate brain activity, namely neural probes, nanobioelectronic neural interfaces, and non-invasive/wireless brain stimulators.

• EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization), Postdoctoral Long-Term Fellowship (2016)
• International PhD program in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine (PDBEB), Graduate Research Fellowship (2009)
• ERASMUS Program (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) , Undergraduate Research Scholarship (2007)