Joao L. de Quevedo, MD, PhD

Biography

Dr. Joao L. de Quevedo is the John S. Dunn Distinguished Professor and serves as Professor, Vice-Chair for Faculty Development and Outreach, Director of the Center for Interventional Psychiatry, and Director of the Treatment-Resistant Depression Program at the Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston).

Dr. João L. de Quevedo completed his medical degree in 1998, residency training in Psychiatry in 2000, a fellowship in Psychopharmacology in 2001, and his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Biochemistry) in 2002 – all from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil.  Dr. de Quevedo has been involved in research since 1994. As a medical student, he was a research fellow in the laboratory of Professor Ivan A. Izquierdo, the most important scientist in Brazil at that time. In 1996, he published his first research paper focused on the neurobiology of learning and memory, an area to which he devoted himself until shortly after the completion of his Ph.D. Over the following years, he gradually shifted his research interest to the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, particularly mood disorders.

As a physician-scientist with broad-based training and expertise in basic behavioral science, and cell biology, Dr. de Quevedo has focused his research on understanding brain mechanisms involved in major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder, as well as strategies to develop new treatments for these conditions. He is a specialist in interventional psychiatry, and treatment-resistant depression, both unipolar and bipolar, both as a clinician and researcher. As a PI or Co-Investigator on several funded grants, he successfully administrated projects, collaborated with other researchers, and produced several peer-reviewed publications; over 640 peer-reviewed publications (Elsevier Scopus h-index = 67). Moreover, Dr. Quevedo’s clinical experience helps direct his research toward translationally relevant basic science questions and vice-versa.  The combination of his strong background in neuropsychiatry disorders and cognition and robust experience in the research field helps direct Dr. de Quevedo’s research toward translationally relevant basic science questions.

Dr. de Quevedo also serves as Associate Editor for Translational Psychiatry, a Springer Nature journal.