Fernando Messore

My research interests reside in understanding the cortical processes that underlie cognition, and how they can be affected under psychiatric conditions. In the last years, the incidence of stress-related pathologies has steadily increased. Therefore, my main focus is to understand how cortical activity can be altered under stressful circumstances, which populations and areas are involved, and finally which treatments could be developed to aid in these situations.

I obtained my Medical Degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 2017. I was fortunate to be able to contribute to several studies during my undergraduate under the supervision of Prof Alicia Brusco, where we focused on the effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol and cannabinoids.

In late 2017, I was awarded a scholarship from the Deutsche Akademisches Austauschdienst (DAAD) to pursue an MSc in Biomedical sciences in a joint program between the university of Buenos Aires and the University of Freiburg. Under the supervision of Dr Pierre Levan, I explored how the activation patterns of the amygdala and prefrontal cortex were temporally organized in healthy individuals, in distinct scenarios such as fear, anger and surprise. I defended my Thesis in February 2019 with a First-Class Distinction.

I continued my education with a DPhil in Neuroscience from the University of Bonn, working at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behaviour with Dr Oberlaender. There my research focused on the anatomical and functional organization of thalamocortical projections on the cerebral cortex, specifically on the GABAergic population of the deep layers of the somatosensory cortex.

In 2023, I joined Prof Zoltan Molnar and Prof Ed Mann at DPAG to study the stress-related orexinogenic projections to the neocortex.