Mario Francisco Juruena graduated in Medicine from Pontifical Catholic University, Southern Brazil. He received his master degree in Affective Neuroscience, Universiteit Maastricht, the Netherlands. He got his doctorate (PhD in Psychiatry) from University of London, United Kingdom. He is also a specialist in adult psychiatry in the UK according to the Specialist Training Authority (STA) of the Medical Royal Colleges and General Medical Council (GMC). Juruena completed training in cognitive psychotherapy at Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, Philadelphia-USA. He has published over 100 original research articles, reviews and book chapters, and edited five books. The British Association for Psychopharmacology awarded him "The Senior Clinical Psychopharmacology Award 2007". He also received the Robert W. Psychopharmacology Kerwin Prize in 2010 from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK for the best article published on the subject in the British Journal of Psychiatry. He is currently the Head of the Stress and Affective Disorders (SAD) Programme and a Professor at the Department of Neurosciences and Behavior, University of São Paulo (USP-FMRP) and Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences, Kings College London.

Most of Dr. Juruena’s  studies are related to the neurobiology, diagnosis and treatment of affective disorders- and their relationship to stress