Marcelo Febo, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Welcome to the Febo laboratory website!
Our laboratory studies functional connectivity in rodent models of neurological and psychiatric brain disorders. We utilize high field MRI to measure resting state and stimulus-evoked BOLD signal responses in rodent brains. We apply this approach to: (1) investigate mechanisms by which beta amyloid alters resting state networks and how this relates to age-related changes in cognitive and non-cognitive behaviors, (2) determine mechanisms involved in the reorganization of functional connectivity in rodent models of experimentally-induced focal brain injury, and (3) study the functional changes in the rodent brain following chronic exposure to substances known to produce drug misuse disorders. In these three major research areas we explore relationships between neuroimaging outcomes and rodent behaviors. Our laboratory conducts tests for anxiety, fear, social interactions, reward seeking, and locomotor activity in mice. Ultimately, our ongoing goal is to uncover whole brain neural mechanisms, from neurons to networks, and gain new insight on dementia disorders in aging, traumatic brain injuries, and addiction. Using this in vivo whole brain imaging and behavior approach offers a rigorous platform for testing of therapeutic candidates in mouse models using fMRI, behavior, and statistical analyses.
I obtained my Bachelors in Science in Biology at the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao and my Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, working under Dr. Annabell C. Segarra, and supported by a 3-year American Physiological Society (APS) Porter Predoctoral Fellowship (Eleanor Ison Franklin Fellow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Ison_Franklin). I conducted a NIDA-funded postdoctoral fellowship in fMRI in awake rats at the Center for Comparative NeuroImaging (CCNI), within the Psychiatry Department of the University of Massachusetts Medical School under Dr. Craig F. Ferris. The Febo laboratory first started in 2007 in the Behavioral Neuroscience Division of the Department of Psychology at Northeastern University, and was part of the Center for Translational NeuroImaging (CTNI). In 2011, I moved to beautiful Gainesville to join the Research Division of the University of Florida Department of Psychiatry and was especially drawn by the outstanding resources provided by the Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (AMRIS) facility.
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