Luis de Lecea, professor at Stanford University, collaborates with the Department of Cell Biology in the development of an optogenetics course

He collaborates in the course Optogenetics, Chemogenetics and Biophotonics, co-organised together with the Catalan Biology Society and the Institute of Catalan Studies. The course takes place between 2 and 10 November at the headquarters of the Institute of Catalan Studies. Gero Miesenböck, professor at the University of Oxford; Pau Gorostiza, researcher at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC); Melike Lakadamyali, expert at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), and Clara Tourinho, researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology, participate in the course too.

Professor Luis de Lecea received his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Barcelona and conducted postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute (San Diego, USA).He directs The de Lecea Lab of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University, pioneer in developing in vivo optogenetic methods. His lab has applied optogenetic techniques to directly modulate neurons that produce hypocretins and other neuromodulators to elucidate their role in behaviours, especially sleep/wake maintenance, stress, and reward. He has received international awards such as the NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grant and the Outstanding Investigator of the Sleep Research Society.