Dr Andrea Danese receives SRCD award
Dr Andrea Danese of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) has been awarded the Early Career Research Contribution Award by the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD).
He is one of only five awardees worldwide and the only SRCD prize-winner based outside of the United States. The award will be presented today at the 2015 Biannual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Dr Danese is Head of the Stress & Development Lab and Clinical Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychobiology and Psychiatry at the MRC Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre, and at the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
His research focuses on the biological mechanisms through which early life stress affects child development and later health. Dr Danese is particularly interested in peripheral effects of child stress on immune and metabolic functioning, which may be central to understanding how stress in children affects their mental and physical health.
He is also an active clinician and works as Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist at the National & Specialist Clinic for Child Traumatic Stress & Anxiety Disorders, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
Dr Danese said: ‘I am honoured to be a recipient of this prestigious award, which recognises my team’s contribution to the understanding of psychological trauma and its effects on child development.
‘Childhood trauma predicts several unfavourable outcomes including both mental and physical illness. However, the mechanisms through which childhood trauma brings about these outcomes (or biological embedding) remain largely unknown. We have suggested that childhood trauma induces immune abnormalities that can help explain later health effects. By better understanding the causes of disease, we hope to enable discovery of new preventative and therapeutic interventions.
‘This award recognises work undertaken in collaboration with several colleagues working on the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study and the Environment-Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study. It also acknowledges the translational work of the clinical team at the National & Specialist Clinic for Child Traumatic Stress & Anxiety Disorders, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.’
Notes to editors
For further media information please contact Jack Stonebridge, Press Officer, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London on jack.stonebridge@kcl.ac.uk or 020 7848 5377.