???global.info.a_carregar???
I (Natacha Sofia Vieitas Gaspar) am Researcher in Health Sciences, focused on Neurosciences at the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), at University of Minho. I graduated in Applied Biology in 2019 at the School of Sciences of University of Minho, having worked briefly in the field of oncology studying the role of WNT6 in a murine in vitro model of glioblastoma during my bachelor's internship project, under the supervision of Bruno Costa, PhD (ICVS). Having then enrolled in the Master's program in Health Sciences at the School of Medicine of University of Minho, I completed my dissertation: "Valence in the Nucleus Accumbens - Identifying Neural Populations in Appetitive and Aversive Responses", under the supervision of Ana João Rodrigues, PhD, and Carina Cunha, PhD. In my Master's dissertation, I studied neuronal populations in the nucleus accumbens (and basolateral and central amygdala subnuclei) regarding their response to positive and negative valence stimuli in hopes of understanding the neural mechanisms of reward and aversion, and how behaviour is influenced by them - a topic I am still exploring today. For this I use a variety of techniques, such as anatomically-detailed immunofluorescence, cell counting (Fiji (ImageJ) software) and behavioural assessments (such as conditioned and real-time place preference) combined with aversive and appetitive stimuli and optogenetics. I have presented my Master's work in poster format at a national conference ("Forum Neuroscience - Annual Neuroscience Research Domain Meeting") and more recently worked as a researcher under a research fellowship (Bial). As of now, I am a team member of two projects, one European Research Council-funded and another Caixa d'Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona-funded. Our team's work led to my involvement in 2 published journal articles (Cell Reports, IF: 9.995; Translational Psychiatry, IF: 7.989) and co-authorship in another article (under review) and in two posters presented at the international FENS Forum 2022.
Read full resume ↓
Identification

Personal identification

Full name
Natacha Sofia Vieitas Gaspar

Citation names

  • Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha

Author identifiers

Ciência ID
C31A-D112-8674
ORCID iD
0000-0002-6503-0046
Researcher Id
AAG-3053-2021

Email addresses

  • pg40139@alunos.uminho.pt (Professional)
  • id10587@alunos.uminho.pt (Professional)

Addresses

  • Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), Universidade do Minho, Campus De Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Braga, Portugal (Professional)

Knowledge fields

  • Medical and Health Sciences - Basic Medicine - Neurosciences
  • Medical and Health Sciences - Health Sciences
  • Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Biology

Languages

Language Speaking Reading Writing Listening Peer-review
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
English Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1)
Education
Degree Classification
2022/10/01 - 2026
Ongoing
 Ciências da Saúde (Doutoramento)
Universidade do Minho, Portugal
2019/09 - 2022/03/16
Concluded
 Ciências da Saúde (Mestrado)
Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
"Valence in the Nucleus Accumbens - Identifying Neural Populations in Appetitive and Aversive Responses" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
 18
2020/01/27 - 2020/02/07
Concluded
 Laboratory Animal Science (LAS) (Outros)
Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
2016/09 - 2019/07
Concluded
 Biologia Aplicada (Licenciatura)
Universidade do Minho Escola de Ciências, Portugal
"Study of the oncogenic role of WNT6 in a murine in vitro model of glioblastoma" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
 16
Affiliation

Science

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2019/11 - Current Research Trainee (Research) Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal

Others

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2021/12/17 - Current Acreditação da Direcção Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária (DGAV) como pessoa competente (investigador) para uso de animais. Direcção-Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária, Portugal
2019/09 - 2022/02 Ciências da Saúde (Mestrado): "Valence in the Nucleus Accumbens - Identifying Neural Populations in Appetitive and Aversive Responses" Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
2019/05 - 2019/06 Projeto Final de Biologia Aplicada (Licenciatura): "Study of the oncogenic role of WNT6 in a murine in vitro model of glioblastoma" Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
Projects

Contract

Designation Funders
2021 - 2026 Challenging current models of valence encoding in the mammalian brain
ERC Consolidator 101003187
Researcher
European Research Council
Ongoing
2021 - 2023 Encoding Reward and Aversion in the mammalian brain: the overlooked role of endogenous opioids
HR20-01000
Researcher
Caixa d'Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona
Ongoing
2022/03/04 - 2022/09/30 The role of nucleus accumbens in the perception of natural rewards
No. 175/20_CCunha
Research Fellow
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
 Fundação Bial
Ongoing
Outputs

Publications

Conference poster
  1. Soares-Cunha, Carina; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Correia, Raquel; Coimbra, Bárbara; Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; Nivaldo AP de Vasconcelos; Luísa Pinto; Nuno Sousa; Ana João Rodrigues. "Divergent role of nucleus accumbens D2-MSN-ventral pallidum projections in different phases of motivated behavior". Paper presented in Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum 2022, 2022.
  2. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Correia, Raquel; Deseyve, Catarina; Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; Floresco, Stan B; Nuno Sousa; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Ana João Rodrigues. "Alteration on effort decision making in a model of prenatal stress: NAc and ACC functional changes". Paper presented in Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum 2022, 2022.
  3. Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Rodrigues, Ana J. "Valence in the Nucleus Accumbens - Identifying Neural Populations in Appetitive and Aversive Responses". Paper presented in Forum Neuroscience - Anual Neuroscience Research Domain Meeting, 2020.
Journal article
  1. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Correia, Raquel; Deseyve, Catarina; Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; Floresco, Stan B.; Sousa, Nuno; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Prenatal dexamethasone exposure alters effort decision making and triggers nucleus accumbens and anterior cingulate cortex functional changes in male rats". Translational Psychiatry 12 1 (2022): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-02043-4.
    10.1038/s41398-022-02043-4
  2. Soares-Cunha, Carina; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Correia, Raquel; Coimbra, Bárbara; Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; de Vasconcelos, Nivaldo A.P.; Pinto, Luísa; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Distinct role of nucleus accumbens D2-MSN projections to ventral pallidum in different phases of motivated behavior". Cell Reports 38 7 (2022): 110380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110380.
    10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110380
  3. Correia, Raquel; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; Sousa, Nuno; Pinto, Luisa; Rodrigues, Ana Joao; Soares-Cunha, Carina. "Involvement of nucleus accumbens D2-MSN projections to the ventral pallidum in anxious-like behaviour". eLife (2022):
    Under revision
Thesis / Dissertation
  1. "Valence in the Nucleus Accumbens - Identifying Neural Populations in Appetitive and Aversive Responses". Master, Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, 2022.
Activities

Event organisation

Event name
Type of event (Role) 		Institution / Organization
2019/03 - 2019/03 I Jornadas da Ciência (2019/03 - 2019/03) Universidade do Minho Escola de Ciências, Portugal

Event participation

Activity description
Type of event 		Event name
Institution / Organization
2020/11 - 2020/11 In this webinar, Xiaoyin Chen, postdoctoral fellow in the Zador Lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, outlined his team's influential developments in high-throughput DNA sequencing technology, providing insight on long-range projections mapping at cellular resolution through the sequencing of RNA barcodes using the MAPseq and BARseq techniques.
Seminar
 Sequencing the Logic of Neuronal Projections
2020/05 - 2020/05 8th Symposium of the Neurotechnology Center at Columbia University, focusing on the topic of Optogenetics.
Symposium
 8th NeuroTechnology Symposium: Optogenetics
Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, United States

Columbia University Faculty of Arts and Sciences, United States

Kavli Institute for Brain Science at Columbia University, United States

Columbia University Mortimer B Zuckerman Mind Brain Behaviour Institute, United States
2020/04 - 2020/04 XI Symbio Wired: Simpósio em Bioengenharia
Symposium
Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal
2020/04 - 2020/04 Workshop focused on providing science communication skills to allow for efficient sharing of information with the general public and the media, given by Kirk Leech, Executive Director of the European Animal Research Association (EARA).
Workshop
 Workshop em Comunicação de Investigação Animal (EARA)
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
2018 - 2018 XIX Jornadas de Biologia Aplicada
Universidade do Minho Escola de Ciências, Portugal

Mentoring / Tutoring

Topic Student name
2021/04 - 2021/06 O que distingue recompensa de aversão no cérebro: o caso da amygdala. (Bachelor's Curricular Internship) Rafaela Martins
2021/04 - 2021/06 O que é que distingue recompensa de aversão no cérebro: processamento de recompensa no núcleo accumbens. (Bachelor's Curricular Internship) Anabela Ferreira
2021/04 - 2021/06 O que é que distingue recompensa de aversão no cérebro: processamento de recompensa na amygdala. (Bachelor's Curricular Internship) Mariana Ferreira
2021/04 - 2021/06 O que distingue recompensa de aversão no cérebro: o caso do núcleo accumbens. (Bachelor's Curricular Internship) Ana Carolina Vieira