Dr. Daniel Dautan is a senior Postdoctoral fellow at the Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, Italy. He obtained a degree in Neuroscience from the University of Leicester (UK) in collaboration with the University of Oxford (UK). He focused on the role of the cholinergic brainstem in the modulation of dopaminergic activity and striatal functions, revealing an atypical and unique direct pathway between the Pedunculopontine and the striatum.
After a postdoctoral stay at the University of Rutgers, New Jersey where he studies the interface between the Basal Ganglia and the Spinal cord using anatomical tracing, ex vivo and in vivo electrophysiology and behavioral experiments, he started a position in the Department of Genetics of Cognition, Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, Italy. His actual work is focusing on the understanding of Schizophrenic symptoms and in particular at the level of the accumbens/prefrontal cortex dopamine balance.