Daniel Almeida-Filho, a post-doctoral fellow, has joined the UCLA Brain Research Institute, as part of the 2019 Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences.
Daniel Almeida-Filho will receive funding for two years to conduct research at UCLA on the brain regions that store information related to spatial memory – memories formed to help guide humans and animals through different environments. He will work in the laboratory of Alcino J. Silva, a distinguished professor of neurobiology, psychiatry, and psychology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Almeida-Filho will study animal models of Noonan Syndrome, which causes cognitive impairments that may interfere with spatial memory. He will then study whether the cholesterol drug lovastatin can reverse memory deficits associated with the syndrome.
"A lab’s success rests on the talent and creativity of its scientists,” said Silva. “I am certainly delighted that Daniel decided to join us.”
Fellows who return to Latin America to launch their own research labs receive additional funding from Pew.
