Prof. Dr. João Peça

João Peça is a Professor at the University of Coimbra and Group Leader at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC-UC). He completed his PhD research 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. His present interests center on the use of advanced models to understand how genetic and environmental risk factors translate to neuronal circuit alterations in neuropsychiatric disorders. He has been an FCT Investigator (2013), won a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (2014) and has been a NARSAD Young Investigator (2014–2016). In 2019 he won the “Pfizer Prize in Basic Research”, the oldest and one of the most prestigious prizes in Portugal in the area of Biomedical Sciences, and was awarded a “Special Recognition—Science” in 2022 by the World Cultural Council, Switzerland. He is a Board Member of CNC-UC, is Treasurer of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience, coordinates the Masters programme in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the Department of Life Science, University of Coimbra and is a member of the Board of Educators for “Neurasmus: the European Masters in Neuroscience”.