Dr. Hector Caruncho

Introduction

Hector Caruncho is a tenured full professor and Canada Research Chair in Translational Neuroscience in the Division of Medical Sciences at the University of Victoria. He also holds a position as Affiliate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, and as Adjunct Professor of the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan.

Prior to these appointments, he was a full professor of Pharmacy at the University of Saskatchewan (2013-2017), and a Faculty member for twenty years in the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain (1994-2013). He also held an adjunct position in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (1996-2002).

From 1992-1994 he was a Research Assistant professor at Georgetown University, and from 1990-1992 held a Fulbright postdoctoral scholarship at the National Institute of Health. His academic credentials include a Bachelor of Science degree (Biology), Master of Science degree (Cell Biology), and a PhD degree (Cell Biology) all of them from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He also has a diploma in Business Administration from the School of Industrial Organization (Madrid, Spain).

Research

 Dr. Caruncho has made important contributions in different fields in Neuroscience since 1990. While his initial research focused on the comparative neuroanatomy of the fish brain, he later moved to studies on the molecular biology and pharmacology of GABAA receptors; animal models of neuromotor disorders; and, lately, to the neurobiology of schizophrenia and depression, including the development of biomarkers and discovery of novel drug targets in mood and psychotic disorders. He has been awarded research funding from Spanish agencies, the European Union, the US, and Canada. He has served in numerous grant committees in Spain, the European Union, and Canada. In addition, he has been very active in outreach activities, including talking to the public media and engaging with several associations of patients with psychiatric disorders.