Time: April 26th, 2022, at 11:30 am

Location: 2nd-floor lunch area in Couch Building on Medical campus (4515 McKinley Ave. St. Louis, MO, 63110)


Dr. Daniel Castro

Assistant Professor

@BRC, MIR, Washington University in St. Louis

Coffee Hour involves:

–Engage Faculty

–Helpful tips for navigating graduate school

–Learn to develop a career in academia

–Get involved in a community of young scientist


Dr. Daniel Castro is an Assistant Professor in the Biophotonics Research Center (BRC) in the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Castro received his B.S. in Psychology from the University of Washington in 2011, and his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2016. He completed his graduate degree under the guidance of Dr. Kent Berridge, focusing on the neural mechanisms underlying affective versus motivated circuits in the brain. These projects were particularly focused on the role of neuropeptides like opioids or orexin in both cortical and subcortical structures. He started his postdoc with Dr. Michael Bruchas at Washington University in St. Louis in 2016. In 2018, he moved with the lab to the University of Washington where he finished his postdoc in 2021. During this phase, Dr. Castro worked on a project that identified the primary mechanism through which mu opioid receptors act to enhance motivated behaviors in nucleus accumbens medial shell. He was also involved in several technology oriented projects. The goal of these endeavors was to develop wireless optofluidic devices for in vivo pharmacology and optogenetic research. Dr. Castro started his laboratory in the BRC beginning in January of 2022. His lab studies how endogenous opioids regulate appetitive and aversive circuits in the brain using next-generation approaches, including CRISPR, 1-photon endoscopic imaging, fiber photometry, wireless technology, pharmacology, viral vectors, and genetic models. The lab is also investigating the role of endogenous opioids in peripheral metabolic organs to understand how they control insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis.