Francisco Clascá

I hold an M.D. from The Basque Country University, Bilbao, Spain (1983), and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Autonoma University of Madrid (UAM, 1990). For my PhD Thesis, I re-defined the insular areas of the carnivore brain cerebral cortex based on their specific thalamic and cortical connectivity. After a postdoctoral training in the lab of Carlos Avendaño, also at UAM, working on claustro-cortical circuitry (1990-92), I joined Mriganka Sur’s laboratory at the Dept. of Brain & Cognitive Sciences of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1992-95). There, I investigated the developmental plasticity of axonal pathways between thalamus and cortex in carnivores. After returning to Spain, I set up an independent lab at the Autonoma University of Madrid, and examined the timing and molecular signals involved in the development of thalamocortical pathways. My research project is elucidating, with single-cell resolution, the functional logic of the network architectures created by the projection neuron populations that interconnect the cortex and thalamus. We use micropopulation and single-cell neuronal tracing, stereology, 3D reconstruction and measurement at the optical and serial EM level as well as extracellular and intracellular recording techniques. We collaborate with research laboratories in Europe, Brazil, the US and China. I am member of the Socierty for Neuroscience (since 1992) and of the Sociedad Española de Neurociencia (since 1986) and Brazilian Society for Neuroscience (2013). Besides, I have taught for 30 years now Human Anatomy and Neuroanatomy at the UAM Medical School. I am a Professor at the Graduate Program in Neuroscience of the UAM-Cajal Institute. I am also Director of the UAM Applied Anatomy Center for surgeons and health sciences professionals, as well as of the Body Donation Program of UAM.