I received my undergraduate degree in Biology from the School of Humanities and Sciences (Udelar, Montevideo, Uruguay) and my Master Degree in Biological Sciences (option Physiology) under the graduate program PEDECIBA. During that time I met Dr. Annabel Ferreira with whom I started working in maternal and aggressive behavior in rats and sheep.
Then I moved to USA and enrolled the graduate program at the Center for Behavioral and Molecular Neuroscience at Rutgers University (Newark Campus, New Jersey, USA) where I worked at the LABs of Joan Morrell and Jay Rosenblatt. I continued studying parental behavior focusing at that time in the development of the circuit that supports parental behavior in rats. I worked as a post-doc and research associate at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) working at the LAB of Dr. Larry Young studying oxytocin role in parental and social behavior in several rodent species.
My group is currently continuing those studies and have also included studies on human behavior.
I have focused my research in finding neural mechanisms that might be common in nature to adapt or modify behavior. In particular, we study rapidly induced (likely not induced by gonadal hormones) behavioral responses and its variability. We also investigate, genome/environment interactions that promotes variability in behavior and how that variability in behavior is reflected in brain function and activity. We are fortunate to have many collaborators and friends and encourage you to contact us for mutual advice and academic exchanges. Throughout our work we have also been part of studies in fishes, monkeys, deers, etc., and have gained experience in a numerous and diverse experimental designs, approaches and techniques.
For more information, contact me at: dolazabal@fmed.edu.uy