Dr. Joana Gil-Mohapel obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry in 2000 and a Master of Science in Cell Biology in 2003, both from the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She then pursued her PhD studies in Neuroscience at the Wallenberg Neursocience Centre, Lund University, Sweden, having completed her PhD in 2007. Gil-Mohapel joined the Division of Medical Sciences at the University of Victoria (UVic) in January 2008, where she completed four years of post-doctoral training, having won post-doctoral awards from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. She is currently a research associate in the Division of Medical Sciences at UVic, and a senior instructor in the Island Medical Program at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine.
Gil-Mohapel has published 27 research articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and nine book-chapters and has presented her work in numerous scientific meetings. Her research interests are to gain a better understanding of how the hippocampus, a structure that plays a role in learning and memory, is affected in neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome as well as during the normal process of aging and whether therapies aimed at promoting hippocampal function can be of therapeutic value for these neurological conditions.
Gil-Mohapel J, Simpson JM, Ghilan M, Christie BR. Neurogenesis in Huntington’s disease: can studying adult neurogenesis lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies? Brain Res. 2011 Aug 11;1406:84-105. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2011.06.040. Epub 2011 Jun 23. (PubMed abstract)
Gil-Mohapel J, Boehme F, Patten A, Cox A, Kainer L, Giles E, Brocardo PS, Christie BR. Altered adult hippocampal neuronal maturation in a rat model of fetal alcohol syndrome. Brain Res. 2011 Apr 12;1384:29-41. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2011.01.116. (PubMed abstract)
Simpson JM, Gil-Mohapel J, Pouladi MA, Ghilan M, Xie Y, Hayden MR, Christie BR. Altered adult hippocampal neurogenesis in the YAC128 transgenic mouse model of Huntington disease. Neurobiol Dis. 2011 Feb;41(2):249-60. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2010.09.012. Epub 2010 Sep 25. (PubMed abstract)
Gil-Mohapel J, Boehme F, Kainer L, Christie BR. Hippocampal cell loss and neurogenesis after fetal alcohol exposure: insights from different rodent models. Brain Res Rev. 2010 Sep 24;64(2):283-303. doi: 10.1016/j.brainresrev.2010.04.011. Epub 2010 May 13. (PubMed abstract)
Gil-Mohapel J, Simpson JM, Titterness AK, Christie BR. Characterization of the neurogenesis quiescent zone in the rodent brain: effects of age and exercise. Eur J Neurosci. 2010 Mar;31(5):797-807. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2010.07132.x. (PubMed abstract)