Felipe Méndez-Salcido, M.D., Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Hanks Lab at the Center for Neuroscience (CNS) and the UC Davis Conte Center, has been named a 2024 Pew Latin American Fellow in the Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Méndez-Salcido is among 10 postdoctoral fellows selected from across Latin America to receive two years of funding for his research. The Fellows program has supported over 200 young scientists from across Latin America, including postdoctoral researchers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

“The Pew Latin American Fellow Award is a tremendous honor and very well-deserved.” said Kimberley McAllister, director of the Center for Neuroscience, co-director of the UC Davis Conte Center, and a 2001 Pew Biomedical Scholar. “Felipe’s training in translational research and expertise in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders is extensive. We are grateful to have him on our team at the UC Davis Conte Center.”

The Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides two years of funding to promising Latin American scientists who conduct research in leading laboratories in the United States. After completing their fellowship, these scientists receive additional support to help establish their own research laboratories upon returning to their home countries, fostering scientific progress and collaboration in Latin America.

“Being chosen as a Pew Latin American Fellow is a great honor, and I’m grateful for the incredible opportunity,” said Dr. Méndez-Salcido. “The Pew funding will allow me to advance my research, accomplish more in the time I have at UC Davis, and help fulfill my dream of starting my own lab in Mexico after I complete my postdoc training.” 

An amazing scientist with a unique vision 

Originally from Chihuahua, Mexico, Dr. Méndez-Salcido attended medical school at Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua and later decided to pursue a research career, which led him to a masters in neuropharmacology at Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN (CINVESTAV) and eventually a Ph.D. at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Neurobiology Institute.

In June 2023, Dr. Méndez-Salcido moved to California to work on a collaboration in the Hanks Lab and the UC Davis Conte Center Project 2 that focuses on phenotypic heterogeneity in offspring resulting from maternal immune activation and underlying neural mechanisms involving dopamine signaling. 

“Felipe is an amazing scientist, who brings a versatile approach to his research that spans scales from molecular mechanisms to behavioral phenotypes,” said Tim Hanks, Ph.D., associate professor of Neurology in the School of Medicine and core faculty member at CNS. “He has a unique vision that he has brought to my lab and the Conte Center project that will have a major, positive impact, and the Pew Fellowship will allow this impact to be even more far-reaching.”

Dr. Méndez-Salcido’s long-term research goals are to better understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying psychiatric diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. He aims to identify new therapeutic targets and strategies that will reveal insights into the mechanisms of disease.