Roberto de la Torre Martinez
Research Specialist
Visiting address: Solnavägen 9 - kvarter B8, 17165 Solna
Postal address: C4 Neurovetenskap, C4 Forskning Silberberg, 171 77 Stockholm
About me
- I received my Ph.D. from the University Miguel Hernandez of Elche, Spain,
under the supervision of Professor Antonio Ferrer-Montiel. In my thesis, I
studied the activity and modulation of several ion channels from the TRP
family responsible for the transduction of noxious stimuli (TRPV1, TRPM8, and
TRPA1). We described potential analgesics for combating chronic pain using
electrophysiological techniques such as /in vitro/ whole-cell patch-clamp
and microelectrode array recordings (MEA) in the dorsal root ganglia neurons
that led to three patents and multiple publications in high-impact
journals.
In my first postdoc, I joined Ramon Reig’s laboratory at the Institute
of Neuroscience of Alicante, Spain, where we studied the impact of dopamine
on the modulation of sensory responses in the medium spiny neurons (MSNs)
located in the dorsomedial striatum (DMS). We found that dopamine enhances
the efficiency of striatal MSNs in the DMS to integrate visual and tactile
information.
Next, I joined Gilad Silberberg’s laboratory at ̽ѡ.
Here, we studied sensory-motor interactions in the dorsolateral striatum of
awake healthy and parkinsonian mice. Using the patch-clamp recordings /in
vivo/ in behaving animals, we showed that neurons respond to both sensory
stimuli and spontaneous whisking and that sensory responses are attenuated by
whisker-related motor activity. We also showed that dopamine depletion
affected both sensory and motor striatal representations in parkinsonian
mice. These findings are published in Nat. Communications
Research
- Currently, I study the claustrum (CLA), a small brain region implicated in a
wide range of functions such as awareness, consciousness, salience reporting,
memory consolidation, attention, regulation of cortical sleep waves, and
impulse control. Here, we combined /in vivo/ multiunit silicon probe
recordings in awake mice, /ex vivo/ paired whole-cell patch-clamp
recordings, optogenetics, and pharmacology to investigate the organizing
principles and targets of CLA projections to the Anterior Cingulate Cortex.
Articles
- Article: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS. 2023;14(1):1004
- Article: BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 2022;179(14):3693-3710
- Article: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES. 2022;23(5):2692
- Article: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES. 2021;22(5):2370
- Article: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 2020;10(1):14154
- Article: ACS CHEMICAL NEUROSCIENCE. 2019;10(8):3900-3909
- Article: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY. 2018;143:157-165
- Article: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 2017;7(1):10766
- Article: JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY. 2016;67(6):851-858
- Article: FUTURE MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY. 2016;8(7):731-749
- Article: JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY. 2016;59(5):2179-2191
- Article: RSC ADVANCES. 2016;6(9):6868-6877
- Article: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY. 2014;86:724-739
- Article: ACS COMBINATORIAL SCIENCE. 2014;16(5):250-258
- Article: PLOS ONE. 2014;9(12):e113841
All other publications
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2023
- Preprint: AUTHOREA, INC.. 2023
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2023
- Preprint: BIORXIV. 2022
- Conference publication: EUROPEAN BIOPHYSICS JOURNAL. 2021;50(SUPPL 1):111
Grants
- Synaptic connectivity of claustrum neurons projecting to the anterior cingulate cortexStrategic Research Program in Neuroscience (StratNeuro)1 January 2023 - 31 December 2023
- University Miguel Hernandez - Spanish Government1 January 2022 - 31 December 2023
- Neuromodulatory effects of kappa opioid receptors in the claustrum microcircuit̽ѡ1 January 2022 - 31 May 2023
News from KI
Events from KI
News from external media
- NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. 2023
- CNN. 2023
- BBC NEWS. 2021