I studied pharmacy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain and received an MSc in life sciences and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. During my PhD, I worked with Professors Bernard Attali and Henry Markram investigating the genetic principles that guide morphological and electrical diversity of neocortical neurons. During my postdoctoral fellowship, at the laboratory of Professor Carmen Sandi (Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne, EPFL), I studied the effect of stress during adolescence searching for key neurobiological mechanisms involved in the vulnerability to psychopathology during adolescence. Interestingly, I found a differential impact on males and females for specific emotional behaviors. Since moving to the University of Nottingham I leveraged on my knowledge and experience of molecular biology and pre-clinical models and focused on the epigenetic basis of vulnerability to mental disease and how to boost resilience. In particular I focus on the positive effects of exercise on mental wellbeing.

2016. Down-regulation of hippocampal genes regulating dopaminergic, GABAergic and glutamatergic function following combined neonatal phencyclidine and post-weaning social isolation of rats as a neurodevelopmental model for schizophrenia. The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology / official scientific journal of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP). (In Press.) PAN-VAZQUEZ A, RYE N, AMERI M, MCSPARRON B, SMALLWOOD G, BICKERDYKE J, RATHBONE A, DAJAS-BAILADOR F and TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ M, 2015. Impact of voluntary exercise and housing conditions on hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor, miR-124 and anxiety. Molecular brain. 8(1), 40 MARKRAM H, MULLER E, RAMASWAMY S, REIMANN MW, ABDELLAH M, SANCHEZ CA, AILAMAKI A, ALONSO-NANCLARES L, ANTILLE N, ARSEVER S, KAHOU GA, BERGER TK, BILGILI A, BUNCIC N, CHALIMOURDA A, CHINDEMI G, COURCOL JD, DELALONDRE F, DELATTRE V, DRUCKMANN S, DUMUSC R, DYNES J, EILEMANN S, GAL E, GEVAERT ME, GHOBRIL JP, GIDON A, GRAHAM JW, GUPTA A, HAENEL V, HAY E, HEINIS T, HERNANDO JB, HINES M, KANARI L, KELLER D, KENYON J, KHAZEN G, KIM Y, KING JG, KISVARDAY Z, KUMBHAR P, LASSERRE S, LE BÉ JV, MAGALHÃES BR, MERCHÁN-PÉREZ A, MEYSTRE J, MORRICE BR, MULLER J, MUÑOZ-CÉSPEDES A, MURALIDHAR S, MUTHURASA K, NACHBAUR D, NEWTON TH, NOLTE M, OVCHARENKO A, PALACIOS J, PASTOR L, PERIN R, RANJAN R, RIACHI I, RODRÍGUEZ JR, RIQUELME JL, RÖSSERT C, SFYRAKIS K, SHI Y, SHILLCOCK JC, SILBERBERG G, SILVA R, TAUHEED F, TELEFONT M, TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ M, TRÄNKLER T, VAN GEIT W, DÍAZ JV, WALKER R, WANG Y, ZANINETTA SM, DEFELIPE J, HILL SL, SEGEV I and SCHÜRMANN F, 2015. Reconstruction and Simulation of Neocortical Microcircuitry. Cell. 163(2), 456-92 TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ M and MARKRAM H, 2014. Single-cell RT-PCR, a technique to decipher the electrical, anatomical, and genetic determinants of neuronal diversity. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.). 1183, 143-58 TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M., LOYSE, N., BOURDON, C., ARAB, S. and PAUSOVA, Z., 2012. Effect of prenatal exposure to nicotine on kidney glomerular mass and AT1R expression in genetically diverse strains of rats Toxicology Letters. 213(2), 228-234 TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M., PITIOT, A., PAUS, T. and SANDI, C., 2012. Stress during puberty boosts metabolic activation associated with fear-extinction learning in hippocampus, basal amygdala and cingulate cortex Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. 98(1), 93-101 ROMAND, S., WANG, Y., TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M. and MARKRAM, H., 2011. Morphological development of thick-tufted layer V pyramidal cells in the rat somatosensory cortex. Frontiers in neuroanatomy. 2011(February), 5 TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M. and SANDI, C., 2011. Stress during adolescence increases novelty seeking and risk taking behavior in male and female rats Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 5, 17 TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, MARIA, LOTFIPOUR, S., LEONARD, G., PERRON, M., RICHER, L., VEILLETTE, S., PAUSOVA, Z. and PAUS, T., 2010. Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with epigenetic modifications of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor-6 exon in adolescent offspring American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics. 153(7), 1350-1354 ,, ASCOLI, GIORGIO A, ALONSO-NANCLARES, LIDIA, ANDERSON, STEWART A, BARRIONUEVO, GERMAN, BENAVIDES-PICCIONE, RUTH, BURKHALTER, ANDREAS, BUZSÁKI, GYÖRGY, CAULI, BRUNO, DEFELIPE, JAVIER and FAIR&, 2008. Petilla terminology: nomenclature of features of GABAergic interneurons of the cerebral cortex. Nature reviews. Neuroscience. 9(7), 557-68 POSPISCHIL, MARTIN, TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, MARIA, MONIER, CYRIL, PIWKOWSKA, ZUZANNA, BAL, THIERRY, FRÉGNAC, YVES, MARKRAM, HENRY and DESTEXHE, ALAIN, 2008. Minimal Hodgkin-Huxley type models for different classes of cortical and thalamic neurons. Biological cybernetics. 99(4-5), 427-41 TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M. and SANDI, C., 2007. Stress before puberty exerts a sex- and age-related impact on auditory and contextual fear conditioning in the rat Neural Plasticity. 2007, 1-12 TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M., GOODMAN, P., ILLIC, M., WU, C. and MARKRAM, H., 2005. Neuropeptide and calcium-binding protein gene expression profiles predict neuronal anatomical type in the juvenile rat Journal of Physiology. 567(2), 401-413 TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, MARIA, EL MANIRA, ABDELJABBAR, WALLÉN, PETER, SVIRSKIS, GYTIS and HOUNSGAARD, JØRN, 2005. Cellular signalling properties in microcircuits. Trends in neurosciences. 28(10), 534-40 TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M., BLUMENFELD, B., WU, C., LUO, J., ATTALI, B., GOODMAN, P. and MARKRAM, H., 2004. Correlation maps allow neuronal electrical properties to be predicted from single-cell gene expression profiles in rat neocortex Cerebral Cortex. 14(12), 1310-1327 WANG, Y., TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M., GUPTA, A., WU, C., SILBERBERG, G., LUO, J. and MARKRAM, H., 2004. Anatomical, physiological and molecular properties of Martinotti cells in the somatosensory cortex of the juvenile rat Journal of Physiology. 561(1), 65-90 MARKRAM, HENRY, TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, MARIA, WANG, YUN, GUPTA, ANIRUDH, SILBERBERG, GILAD and WU, CAIZHI, 2004. Interneurons of the neocortical inhibitory system. Nature reviews. Neuroscience. 5(10), 793-807 WANG, Y., GUPTA, A., TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M., WU, C.Z. and MARKRAM, H., 2002. Anatomical, physiological, molecular and circuit properties of nest basket cells in the developing somatosensory cortex Cerebral Cortex. 12(4), 395-410 TIAN, D., LITVAK, V., TOLEDO-RODRIGUEZ, M., CARMON, S. and LEV, S., 2002. Nir2, a novel regulator of cell morphogenesis Molecular and Cellular Biology. 22(8), 2650-2662