THE GUINJOAN LABORATORY

Salvador M. Guinjoan, M.D., Ph.D

Principal Investigator, LIBR
Email: SGuinjoan@laureateinstitute.org
Phone: 918-502-5119
Mobile: 918-370-359


Our Research Approach

Dr. Guinjoan has recently been incorporated to LIBR, and is working on the definition of neurobiological signatures of transdiagnostic clinical manifestations (especially rumination, a well-known adverse prognostic factor in a variety of psychiatric conditions), with the purpose of attaining a better definition of both 1) disease processes which transcend current psychiatric diagnostic categories, and 2) prognosis and prediction of response to treatment, especially in the mood and anxiety disorders. To this end, he is studying a large sample of healthy participants and patients with nonpsychotic disorders (T1000). He is also helping to define experiments that characterize -and modulate- structural and functional brain circuits in such disorders, with the ultimate goal of providing the treating clinician with diagnostic and prognostic tools based upon quantifiable neurobiological variables.

Scientific Background

Dr. Guinjoan obtained M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine in 1992 and 1997 respectively. He completed his residency training in psychiatry at The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital/University of Maryland program in 1999, where he was also a chief resident, and obtained his board certification in 2000. He returned to Buenos Aires in 1999 and developed a career in clinical and academic psychiatry at the University of Buenos Aires and at the Fleni Foundation institute, where he was Chief of Psychiatry and interim Chief of Cognitive Neurology. He is an international fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the American College of Psychiatrists. His initial scientific work contributed to characterize autonomic nervous system dysfunction as a potential mechanism explaining the link between depression and adverse prognosis in heart disease. More recently his lab contributed to the understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings and functional impact of social cognitive alterations in schizophrenia. He is part of the ANDES consortium, a multinational effort to understand the impact of poverty, violence, and social inequality on cognition and brain biology in patients with psychosis. He collaborated with colleagues at the University of Barcelona on the definitions of functional imaging and autonomic signatures of stress regulation in patients with depression as compared to those with emotional dysregulation due to borderline personality disorder. His last main line of work has been the definition of very early, noninvasive markers of Alzheimer’s disease in middle-aged individuals with and without a family history of the disease. To this end his lab used structural and functional MRI, along with PET studies to define brain metabolism and in vivo Beta-Amyloid deposit.

Selected Relevant Publications

Crossley NA, Zugman A, Reyes-Madrigal F, Czepielewski LS, Castro MN, Díaz-Zuluaga AM, Pineda-Zapata JA, Reckziegel R, Gadelha A, Jackowski A, Noto C Alliende LM, Iruretagoyena B, Ossandon T, Ramírez-Mahaluf JP, Castañeda CP, González-Valderrama A, Nachar R, León-Ortiz P, Undurraga J, López-Jaramillo C, Guinjoan SM, Gama CS, de la Fuente-Sandoval C, Bressan RA, for the ANDES Network (2020): Structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia in adverse environments: examining the effect of poverty and violence in six Latin American cities. British Journal of Psychiatry. Aug 18:1-7. doi: 10.1192/bjp.2020.143. In press.
Axelrud LK, Sato JR, Santoro ML; Talarico F, Daniel S Pine, Rohde LA, Zugman A, Junior EA, Bressan RA, Grassi-Oliveira R; Pan PM; Hoffmann M, Simioni AR, Guinjoan SM, Hakonarson H, Brietzke E, Gadelha A, da Silva RP, Hoexter MQ, Miguel EC, Belangero SI, Salum GA (2019): Genetic Risk for Alzheimer's Disease and Functional Brain Connectivity in Children and Adolescents. Neurobiology of Aging, 82: 10-17.
Guinjoan SM, Bernabó JL, Cardinali DP (1995): Cardiovascular tests of autonomic function and sympathetic skin responses in patients with major depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 58:299-302.
Drucaroff LJ, Fazzito ML, Castro MN, Nemeroff CB, Guinjoan SM, Villarreal MF (2020): Insular functional alterations in emotional processing of schizophrenia patients revealed by Multivariate Pattern Analysis fMRI. Journal of Psychiatric Research. Aug 1;130:128-136. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.06.017. In press.
Crossley NA, Alliende LM, Ossandon T, Castañeda CP, González-Valderrama A, Undurraga J, Castro M, Guinjoan SM, Díaz-Zuluaga AM, Pineda-Zapata JA, López-Jaramillo C, Reyes-Madrigal F, León-Ortíz P, de la Fuente-Sandoval C, Czepielewski LS, Gama CS, Zugman A, Gadelha A, Jackowski A, Bressan R (2019): Imaging Social and Environmental Factors as Modulators of Brain Dysfunction: Time to Focus on Developing Non-Western Societies. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. 4:8-15. 
Vigo DE, Nicola Siri L, Ladrón de Guevara MS, Martínez Martínez JA, Fahrer RD, Masoli O, Cardinali DP, Guinjoan SM (2004): Relation of depression to heart rate nonlinear dynamics in patients 60 years of age with recent unstable angina pectoris or acute myocardial infarction. American Journal of Cardiology, 93(6):756-760.
del Cerro I, Villarreal M, Abulafia C, Duarte-Abritta B, Sánchez SM, Castro MN, Bocaccio H, Ferrer I, Menchón JM, Sevlever G, Nemeroff CB, Soriano-Mas C, Guinjoan SM (2020): Disrupted functional connectivity of the locus coeruleus in healthy adults with parental history of Alzheimer´s Disease. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 123:81-88. ​
Duarte-Abritta B, Villarreal MF, Abulafia C, Loewenstein D, Curiel R, Castro M, Surace E, Sánchez SM, Vigo DE, Vázquez S, Nemeroff CB, Sevlever G, Guinjoan SM (2018): Cortical Thickness, Brain Metabolic Activity, and In Vivo Amyloid Deposition in Asymptomatic, Middle-Aged Offspring of Patients with Late-Onset Alzheimer´s Disease. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 107:11-18.
de Achával D, Villarreal MF, Costanzo EY, Douer J, Castro MN, Mora MC, Nemeroff CB, Chu E, Bär KJ, Guinjoan SM (2012): Decreased activity in right-hemisphere structures involved in social cognition in siblings discordant for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 134(2-3):171-179.