Welcome to the Fogaça Lab

Depression and anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric conditions and leading causes of disability worldwide. Beyond their enormous societal and economic burden, these disorders profoundly affect quality of life, relationships, and the ability to work and function in everyday life. Yet, despite major advances in neuroscience, many patients do not adequately respond to currently available treatments (e.g., monoaminergic drugs such as SSRIs), and these conventional antidepressants can take weeks to produce meaningful clinical improvement. Understanding how stress alters brain function and how rapidly acting novel treatments can reverse these changes is, therefore, critical for developing faster, more effective, and safer therapeutic strategies.

Research in the Fogaça Lab seeks to uncover the molecular, cellular, and circuit mechanisms that shape behavioral responses to stress and enable long-lasting recovery. We are particularly interested in how defined neuronal populations communicate within and across brain circuits, and how excitatory, inhibitory, and neuromodulatory systems interact to shift brain networks between maladaptive stress states and adaptive recovery. By combining neuropharmacology with cell type- and circuit-specific approaches, we aim to translate fundamental discoveries about brain function into new strategies for treating depression, anxiety, and related disorders.

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