Awarded a Fullbright scholarship, Ledia comes to the Graybiel Lab with a degree in Biological Sciences and a PhD in Neuroscience from the Universidad Complutense, in Madrid, Spain.

For her PhD work, Ledia studied the interaction of neurotransmitters in multiple areas of the brain, including the basal ganglia. As a graduate student, she was awarded a fellowship to the Karolinska Institut, Sweden, to work at Kjell Fuxe’s lab.

Ledia will spend time in the Graybiel lab exploring basal ganglia function and electrophysiology. She is particularly interested in the changes involved in the development of Parkinson’s disease, its origin, evolution and the compensatory effects developed during the course of the disease.

PUBLICATIONS
Cantuti-Castelvetri I, Hernandez LF, Keller-McGandy CE, Kett LR, Landy A, Hollingsworth ZR, Saka E, Crittenden JR, Nillni EA, Young AB, Standaert DG, Graybiel AM. (2010) Levodopa-induced dyskinesia is associated with increased thyrotropin releasing hormone in the dorsal striatum of hemi-parkinsonian rats. PLoS One. Nov 10; 5 (11): e13861.

Crittenden JR, Cantuti-Castelvetri I, Saka E, Keller-McGandy CE, Hernandez LF, Kett LR, Young AB, Standaert DG, Graybiel AM. (2009) Dysregulation of CalDAG-GEFI and CalDAG-GEFII predicts the severity of motor side-effects induced by anti-parkinsonian therapy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106 (8): 2892-6.

Hernandez LF, Segovia G, Mora F.Changes in dopamine and acetylcholine in striatum of the awake rat after chronic treatment with a dopamine uptake blocker. Brain Res Bull. 2006 Feb 15; 68(6): 448-52.

Hernandez LF, Segovia G, Mora F. Effects of activation of NMDA and AMPA glutamate receptors on the extracellular concentrations of dopamine, acetylcholine, and GABA in striatum of the awake rat: a microdialysis study. Neurochem Res. 2003 Dec; 28(12): 1819-27.