Ivan Izquierdo has made several key contributions to the understanding of the cellular bases of brain processes underlying memory storage and retrieval. His research work is focused in the biological mechanisms of memory processes, employing multiple experimental approaches that range from behavioral psychobiology to neurochemistry, pharmacology, neurophysiology and experimental neurology, usually employing intracerebral microinfusions of drugs and assaying its effects upon different brain receptors, cellular processes, and, in particular, behavioral performance in different tasks. He was among the first to reveal the roles of epinephrine, dopamine, endogenous opioid peptides and acetylcholine in modulating memory consolidation and state-dependent memory retrieval. Later he has investigated benzodiazepine and GABAergic influences on memory. Some of his main achievements include the molecular bases of memory formation, retrieval, persistence and extinction in the mammal brain, the endogenous state dependency, and the functional discrimination between short and long-term memory.

Over the years, Ivan Izquierdo has published more than 500 scientific papers in refereed journals and was, for years, one of the most cited scientists in Brazil (and Latin America): 13 of his papers have been cited over 100 times, and since 1958 his papers have received over 10,000 citations. He has also published 17 books, 6 of which are fiction / chronicle, a recent, parallel avenue of personal interest.

Member of several Academies of Sciences in Brazil and abroad - he was elected Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, in May 1, 2007 - and has earned more than 30 important national and international awards, including the highest civilian badge of honor of Brazil, the Ordem do Barão do Rio Branco" (2007). In Argentina, Izquierdo is the eighth person since 1821 to be named Honorary Professor of the University of Buenos Aires: the other seven were Nobel Laureates.

I Izquierdo, JH Medina (1997) Memory Formation: The sequence of biochemical events in the hippocampus and its connection to activity in other brain structures. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 68, 285-316.

I Izquierdo, DM Barros, T Mello e Souza, MM Souza, LA Izquierdo, JH Medina (1998) Mechanisms for memory types differ. Nature, 393, 635-636.

I Izquierdo, LRM Bevilaqua, JI Rossato, JS Bonini, JH Medina, M Cammarota (2006) Different molecular cascades in different sites of the brain control consolidation. Trends in Neurosciences, 29, 496-505.

P Beckinschtein, M Cammarota, LM Igaz, LRM Bevilaqua, I Izquierdo, JH Medina (2007) Persistence of long-term memory storage requires a late protein synthesis- and BDNF-dependent phase in the hippocampus. Neuron 53, 261-267.

JI Rossato, LRM Bevilaqua, I Izquierdo, JH Medina, M Cammarota (2009) Dopamine controls persistence of long-term memory storage. Science, 325, 1017-1020.