CV

Enduring psychological stress exposure, particularly during sensitive developmental windows, constitutes a severe risk factor for the development and manifestation of a broad range of physical and mental disorders that severely confer a major global burden of disease. My research interests involve unravelling the biological mechanisms underlying this risk and evolved towards the identification of biomarkers of mental health problems and resilience and new targets for intervention. Currently, I am extending this research by combining psychological assessments with biological read-outs to monitor and predict therapy responsiveness and its underlying mechanisms in the context of (psycho)therapeutic interventions, to further promote preventive, personalized and predictive medicine (3PM) treatment options for mental and stress-related physical conditions.

Main areas of research:

• Neuroendocrine system
• Telomere biology
• Prenatal and early life stress
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Immunopsychiatry
• Metabolic function
• Epigenetics