Peça, João
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Name
Peça, João
Variants
Peca, João
Unidade de I&D
Email
jmpessa@gmail.com
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Ciência ID
Status
UC Researcher
Biography
João Peça is a neurobiologist with more than 15 years of research experience. Presently, he is Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Coimbra and Group Leader of the Neuronal Circuits and Behavior Lab. João completed his Ph.D. at Duke University, where he created the first transgenic mice for channelrhodopsin-2 and pioneered the field of optogenetics. He performed postdoctoral research at MIT characterizing animal models for autism, where he uncovered a new role for cortico-striatal dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders. He has completed was supervisor or co-supervisor of 5 Ph.D. students' thesis and of 10+ M.Sc. students. Present interests of his group center on using advanced models to understand how genetic and environmental elements risk factors translate to neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. To achieve this, João uses a combination of molecular genetics, optogenetics and electrophysiological approaches using animal models and human brain organoids. To date his work has led to primary research papers in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Nature Communications, Molecular Psychiatry, PNAS, and Neuron, and review work in Cell and Annual Reviews in Neuroscience. In 2019 he won "Pfizer Prize in Basic Research", the oldest and one of the most prestigious prizes in Portugal in the area of Biomedical Sciences.
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Type
Results 1-3 of 3 (Search time: 0.009 seconds).
Issue Date | Title | Author(s) | Type | Access | |
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1 | 30-Oct-2014 | Expression and purification of Channelrhodopsin-2 in Pichia pastoris: generation of blue-shifted and redshifted optogenetic variants | Mazza, Fabio | masterThesis | openAccess |
2 | 2015 | "Intelligent design of color-tuned ChR2 variants for optogenetics applications” | Cruz, Bruno Filipe Oereira da | masterThesis | openAccess |
3 | 2015 | Optogenetics and biotechnology : production and in vitro characterization of Ab-Initio designed channelrhodopsin-2 mutants | Pereira, João Miguel Calmeiro | masterThesis | openAccess |