Filipa Baptista is currently a Junior Investigator at ICBR, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra.

In the past years Filipa Baptista has been focused in studying the impact of diabetes at the central nervous system (in the context of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic encephalopathy), giving a better insight into diabetes-induced neuronal changes in the retina and hippocampus. More recently, is investigating how exposure to a stressor (namely maternal diabetes and prenatal exposure to dexamethasone) in specific developmental windows, causes deleterious effects on the offspring, namely by increasing offspring susceptibility to neurodevelopmental/neuropsychiatric disorders. 

Regarding this issue, Filipa Baptista contributed to show that microglia cells, which are involved in synapse regulation during neurodevelopment, may act as cellular mediators of an increased risk of psychiatric and neurologic disorders throughout life. 

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Present research interests:

Neurosciences; Diabetes during pregnancy; Neuroinflammation; Anxiety disorders; Sex-differences; Neurodevelopment; Microglia, Synapse formation and dysfunction.