Researcher profile

Diana Prata

I am a Group Leader and Lecturer at the University of Lisbon since 2015 (after 12 years in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience of King's College London (IoPPN - KCL) where I've set up the Biomedical Neuroscience research lab (dpratalab.wordpress.com); a current Visiting Lecturer at IoPPN -KCL and a Collaborator of the Centre for Psychological Research and Social Intervention (CIS) of IUL-ISCTE. I was distinguished with the 2017 Marie Curie 3rd Prize as “Most Promising Scientist in Innovation & Entrepreneurship”; three publications-based prizes by 2 universities (the 2019 & 2020 ISCTE-IUL Scientific Prizes, and an 2020 Honorable Mention by Univ. Lisbon). In 2023, I was awarded a 2022 Scientific Employment contract, placed Top 1st in Psychology nation-wide. I became a biologist at the University of Lisbon in 2002, and moved to the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, of KCL, as a Leonardo da Vinci fellow, passionate about human neuroscience. There I started working on the genetics of mental illness. Awarded an FCT fellowship, I moved “closer to the brain” and completed therein a PhD in neuroimaging genetics in 2009. Two years later, I was awarded the prestigious UK NIHR post-doc fellowship to work on a multimodal biomarker for psychosis, then a Lectureship at KCL, a KCL Academic Advancement promotion, and distinguished by KCL as a Top Early Career Researcher in the UK Research Excellence Framework 2014. I’ve been sole PI of €2M in 32 grants (since 2015: 18 grants, totalling > €1M) from a range of sponsors, inc. a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant in 2015. I was the only researcher distinguished in the triannual 2019 international Evaluation Report of my host institution as “a researcher whose activity should be strongly supported”. Overall, throughout my 22-year full-time research career (0-5% teaching) all my salaries and research have been self-secured by highly competitive calls. I am given an H-index of 28 (GoogleScholar, >3200 cit. starting in 2007), after 64 articles, mostly in Q1 journals, from which 15 as 1st-author, 54 original data, (several in IF>10 journals, e.g. PNAS, JAMA Psychiatry, Mol Psychiat and Biol Psychiat, all ranking in Psychiatry's top 4; and in the top Neuroimaging journals, e.g. Hum Brain Mapp, Neuroimage). Since starting my lab, I last-authored 25 articles, in top journals such as Sci Rep, Cer Cortex, J Psychopharm, Psych Med, Hum Mol Gen, Neurosci & Biobeh Rev; Iive presented, invited, in 60 seminars/meetings, 19 international; and 75 media appearances in TV/radio/newspapers/documentaries/talks(e.g. History Channel, French radio, etc.). I'm invited expert at 13 funding bodies, at 40+ journals; and 14 societies. I have formally supervised 111 MSc/PhD/BSc students (about half international) and 4 post-docs (3 international), including 23 successful MSc/PhD theses; and written projects for 9 PhD/post-doc successful FCT fellowships; with half of my team being international. Research-wise, I reported the 1st evidence that schizophrenia-risk genes can predispose to bipolar disorder. During my PhD, I pioneered the combination of genetics and neuroimaging to elucidate how genetic mutations implicated in those illnesses affect white matter structure and brain function. As a post-doc, I described how these mutations influence response to antipsychotics; and kick-started a genetic/imaging/environmental study to predict psychosis onset, using machine learning. In 2015, I founded my own research lab in Portugal, and 2017 its spin-off NeuroPsyAI. As a sole PI, in Portugal, I've set up a unique multimodal psychophysiological facility (MRI, EEG, SCR, ECG & eye-tracking) which allows a diverse team to perform advanced interdisciplinary neuroscience: medical doctors, biologists, psychologists, and engineers, majorly focused on how oxytocin modulates social behaviour in humans. Overall, my lab’s mission is to: 1) using neuroscience, highlight the importance of the social dimension of our lives to our personal and societal well-being, and to enhance it in health and disease; and 2) to achieve this in an empathic, creative, team-work centered, and socially healthy lab environment. More info in https://dpratalab.wordpress.com/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Prata Updated: 24 Feb 2024