Dr. Joseph Glykys received his medical degree from Universidad de Carabobo, Valencia, Venezuela in 2001. He practiced general medicine in underserved communities in Carabobo, Venezuela from 2001 to 2002. Later, he pursued his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 2002 to 2007 under the mentorship of Dr. Istvan Mody. He then worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard University from 2007 to 2009 under the mentorship of Dr. Kevin Staley. He followed that up with a Pediatric Neurology Residency from 2009 to 2013 at the combined Harvard/BWH-MGH program. Dr. Glykys served as an Assistant Professor at MGH until he moved to the University of Iowa in 2019, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology. Throughout his career, he has been funded by multiple foundations and the NIH.

Dr. Glykys practices general pediatric neurology and dedicates most of his time to bench research on epilepsy and neuronal swelling in the neonatal brain. Specifically, his research focuses on the functioning of the inhibitory system at the cellular level and the relationship between neuronal edema, seizures, and altered chloride and calcium homeostasis.