Bárbara Canijo Santos

Overview

Bárbara Canijo obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at University of Porto and finished her Master degree last year in Molecular and Translational Neuroscience at University of Coimbra. During her bachelor degree, she joined the Animal Genetics and Evolution group at CIIMAR, where she studied regulatory mechanisms of fast neurosecretion of acetylcholine in Torpedo marmorata (commonly known as the electric ray), learning some techniques of electrophysiology. Her master thesis, developed in the Neuronal Circuits and Behavior group at CNC, focused on understanding how prefrontal cortex neurons are modulated during social contacts with animals of different positions in social hierarchy, performing behavior assays, molecular analysis, and in vivo electrophysiology recordings. Bárbara is currently working in the laboratory of Neural Circuits of Social Behaviour (PI: Cristina Márquez) and she is applying for PhD to explore what factors and which brain regions influence decision making, focusing her attention in pro-social behaviors.