Javier Gilbert-Jaramillo

Research area

My research interest is focused on high fat metabolism as a treatment for neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. I am currently investigating whether a high fat diet can significate a prevention treatment in congenital ZIKV-associated abnormalities, particularly microcephaly.

Personal summary

I graduated with honors in Biology from ESPOL Polytechnic University (Guayaquil – Ecuador) in 2014. During my undergraduate I collaborated with the Antarctic Chilean Institute discovering a biomarker of climate change and contamination in the Antarctic sea urchin. I also performed biomarker research in the Ecuadorian shrimp. In 2015 I was awarded with an Ecuadorian National Government scholarship to conduct my MRes studies in Translational Neurology at UCL, where I joined Isaacs’ lab researching in the development of a biomarker for C9orf72 ALS/FTD. After obtaining a distinction degree I returned to Ecuador as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Life Sciences (ESPOL). My research includes neuro-epidemiological studies in Ecuador; cognitive impairment and severe behavioral changes among drug addicts, with the collaboration of the Institute of Neurosciences of Guayaquil and; the effects of the ketogenic high-fat low-carb diet in schizophrenia, with collaboration of Christopher Palmer, MD-PhD (McLean Hospital – Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School). In late 2017, I was awarded with an Ecuadorian National Government scholarship for doctoral studies to undertake a DPhil in the DPAG (University of Oxford).