Miguel Sá Sousa Castelo Branco

Algoritmi | User | Miguel Sá Sousa Castelo Branco

At LASI

Member of the CIBIT R&D Unit

Academic Degree

Current Position

Personal Webpage

Personal Email

mcbranco@fmed.uc.pt

Orcid

0000-0003-4364-6373

Researcher ID

FCT Public Key

Ciência ID

7A12-48FE-7B56

Google Scholar

About Me

MCB (MD PhD) is the Director of CIBIT, the Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research and has been the Director of IBILI, a leading Vision Research Institute in Portugal. He is the Scientific Coordinator of the National Functional Brain Imaging Scientific initiative. He was also the Director of ICNAS, the Medical Imaging Infrastructure at the University of Coimbra. Under his leadership IBILI was classified as an Excellent Research Unit by international evaluation panels. He obtained his PhD at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain research, Frankfurt, Germany and is now Associate Professor at the University of Coimbra. He has held a Professorship in Psychology in 2000 at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands. Before, he was a Postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research, Germany where he had also performed his PhD work (1994-1999). His achievements are well reflected in publications in top General Journals, such as Nature and PNAS and Top Clinical Translational research journals such as Journal of Clinical Investigation, Brain, Human Molecular Genetics) as well as others in the field of Vision Research (Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Journal of Vision, Vision Research Archives of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology), Human Neurophysiology and Neuroscience (The Journal of Neuroscience, The Journal of Neurophysiology, Human Brain Mapping, Neuroimage, Cerebral Cortex, Neuron and others). MCB has made interdisciplinary contributions in the fields of Cognitive Neuroscience, Human and Animal Neurophysiology, Visual Neuroscience, Human Psychophysics, Functional Brain Imaging and translational research in Neurology. His lab has accomplishing tasks in the context of several European Networks, (Evi-Genoret, BACS, e-Rare Consortia, BrainTrain, Stiped), and has succeed in collaborating with labs working in other fields of knowledge such as Human Genetics and Clinical Neuroscience. His work in fundamental neuroscience ranges from sensory biophysics to visual attention and high level processes in human neurophysiology. He has also addressed the temporal dynamics of perceptual decision mechanisms and the role of context. In his translational research he could separate low vs. high level impairment in visual cognition in a genetic neurodevelopmental model, Williams Syndrome. He has further studied parallel pathways to quantitatively analyze visual and motor aging in neurodegenerative disorders (in particular Parkinson Disease). His laboratory is very experienced in Visual and Cognitive Impairment questions, and the role of innate factors and learning in shaping cognitive performance. In recent work, the lab has characterized several disease models of genetic vs. acquired visual impairments. One major goal is to provide models of cognitive impairment based on new structure-function and genotype-phenotype correlations that may help define novel rehabilitation strategies in neuropsychiatric conditions. MCB has also been successful in generating interdisciplinary work with scientists working in the field of neuropsychology, neuroinformatics and neuroengineering. This enabled proof of concept publications showing the effectiveness of brain computer interfaces and neurofeedback in normal and neurological populations. His group was the first to establish the field of functional brain imaging in Portugal and he has been awarded several National and International Prizes (> 200.000). Finally, he has been involved in major International grants such as EVIGENORET (Functional Genomics of the Retina), BACS (Bayesan Approach to cognitive Systems), EPILEPSIAE (on Epilepsia) and currently FP7 and H2020 Projects ( BRAINTRAIN, INFRADEV, MARIE CURIE- MSCA, STIPED). He also has strong experience in preclinical and clinical research (including clinical trials involving drug therapies), including H2020 European projects involving companies (SME-RadICAL) and has been involved in “spin-off” initiatives and entrepreneurial consortia between academia and the industry.

Publications (1274)

Global prevalence and disability burden of brain disorders: Impact of neurological, mental, and substance use disorders

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

2026 | journal-article

Algoritmi | User | Miguel Sá Sousa Castelo Branco

Custom menu section

Popular posts