João Peça, PhD

Group Leader
Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC-UC) & Assistant Professor

University of Coimbra
Coimbra, Portugal

João Peça is Assistant Professor and Group Leader at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra. He performed his PhD at Duke University and postdoctoral training at MIT. Currently, his lab uses a combination of electrophysiology, optogenetic tools and advanced models to understand how genetic and environmental challenges lead to neuronal circuit dysfunction in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. His group is funded by grants from H2020, FCT, Bial Foundation, Takeda, IBRO, Pfizer and ERA-Net Neuron. He has been awarded several prestigious grants and awards, including a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant, a NARSAD Young Investigator Award and an IBRO Early Career Award. He won the “2019 Pfizer Prize” in Basic Research, the oldest and one of the most prestigious prizes in Portugal in the area of Biomedical Science and in 2022 was awarded a “Special Recognition in Science” from the World Cultural Council.

Visit the speaker’s lab here︎
Learn more about the speaker here︎