Project Supervisors

Ester Desfilis

Ester Desfilis is Associate Professor of Psychobiology at the University of Lleida (Spain) and co-IP of the Research Group of Evolutionary and Developmental Neurobiology at the UdL/IRBLleida. Previously, she was Assistant Professor at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) and did short research stages at the “Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry” (Saint Petersburg, Russia), Natural History Museum (Valencia, Spain), Universities of Chile and Valparaiso (Chile). She has a long research trajectory in the field of Neuroethology, studying lizards’ behaviours, both in the laboratory and in the field. Recently, she is investigating the development and evolution of the telencephalon, with emphasis in the amygdala (using an evo-devo approach). She is very active in diffusion of science to Society and is member of the Scientific Board in the popular science quarterly journal Mètode, which has received several awards for promoting scientific knowledge and critical thinking in society.

Ester is one of the scientists in charge of Project 1: Connections and stress-related activity of different neuron subpopulations of the central extended amygdala and Project 5: Genetic and stress effects on the genoarchitecture and transcriptomics of the central extended amygdala.