Hernando Martinez Vergara, PhD

I am leading the Learning Circuits Lab at IDIBAPS.

I studied Biotechnology in the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (2005-2009), Bioinformatics in the King’s College of London (2009-2010), and Cell and Developmental Biology in San Francisco State University (2010-2012). I did my PhD in Evolution of the nervous system in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg (2012-2017), and my postdoc in Systems neuroscience in the Sainsbury Wellcome Center for neural circuits and behavior in London (2018-2023). In 2023 I worked in a start-up for the diagnosis of neurodegeneration. In April 2024 I joined the Brain Circuits and Behavior Lab as a Ramon y Cajal Fellow.

In the EMBL I studied the evolution of the nervous system, using the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii. I developed a gene expression atlas to reveal the molecular profiles of all the cells inside the body of this animal, integrating it with single cell RNA sequencing data, and with a whole-body ultrastructural map. This revealed deep evolutionary relationships between the neurons of animals, and generated tools for the multimodal characterisation of neurons.

During my postdoc I studied the striatal circuits in mice that control the learning of auditory associations, and the mechanisms by which dopamine shapes their plasticity.

My research focuses on the midbrain and hindbrain circuits by which the basal ganglia control behavior in mice. I use auditory and olfactory tasks, viral strategies for circuit tracing, single cell transcriptomics to characterise neurons, optogenetics to assess the role of specific circuits, and electrophysiology to assess the mechanisms by which neuronal activity gives rise to specific behaviors. A better understanding of these circuits will allow the design of therapies to counteract the effects of diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s, something I am keen on doing through collaborations in IDIBAPS.