Brazilian Arthur Alves Coelho fell in love with Denmark during an internship in Aarhus, and he is looking forward to explore Danish neuroscience further in the NAD PhD programme.
Arthur Alves Coelho has a master’s degree in Pharmacology from the University of São Paulo, Brazil from 2024. He describes his main interests within neuroscience as animal models of psychiatric diseases and translational psychiatry:
”I am especially interested in how fear memories are encoded because these are very important in anxiety-related disorders and PTSD. I want to understand the mechanisms that are involved in order to find better targets for treatment of these diseases,” Arthur explains.
For the rotations during the pre-PhD year, Arthur is looking to gain experience with new techniques and build new connections:
”I think the pre-PhD year is excellent because I will have one year to learn new things and experience new fields, and I can really use this to define my project. I think the programme really emphasises collaboration, and I see this as very important in all fields of science,” Arthur says.
Arthur will be doing his first lab rotation with PI Asami Tanimura at Aarhus University. This is not Arthur’s first time in the ‘City of Smiles’ - he got a taste of life in Denmark during an internship at the Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit in 2022:
”During my master’s degree internship in Aarhus, I fell in love with Denmark. I fell in love with the research environment, which is very collaborative, and with the country as a whole,” Arthur says.
Moving to Denmark for four years will be a big transition, but Arthur is excited and ready for the challenges ahead – and he is looking forward to visiting some of the many excellent research labs around the country.