Dr. Chiara Fabbri is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow and she started at King’s College London on 1/10/2018. Her research project (ESTREA: Exome Sequencing in stages of Treatment REsistance to Antidepressants) aims to study the contribution of rare and common genetic variants to the risk of developing treatment-resistant depression. The innovative features of this project are the study of rare variants obtained through whole exome sequencing in antidepressant response and the availability of data on the number and type of failed antidepressant treatments in each participant.  

Before working at King’s College London, Chiara Fabbri graduated in medicine and surgery at Bologna University (Italy), where she also completed her clinical training in psychiatry and she started her research activity. Since she was a medical student, pharmacogenetics has been her main research interest, but she also contributed to the study of the clinical factors involved in the modulation of pharmacological treatment response in psychiatric disorders.  

Chiara Fabbri obtained her PhD degree at Maastricht University, Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology (The Netherlands), with the thesis entitled: Pharmacogenomics of antidepressant drugs: perspectives for the personalization of treatment in depression.  

Research interests:

• Pharmacogenomics 
• Clinical-demographic modulators of response to psychotropic medications 
• Personalized treatment of psychiatric disorders 
• Genetics of mood disorders 

Research groups:

Statistical Genetics Unit (SGU), led by Professor Cathryn Lewis at KCL 

Teaching:

Genes, Environment & Development in Psychology & Psychiatry MSc 

Affective disorders and pharmacogenetics in psychiatry (module 7PADGGA1) 

Expertise and Public Engagement:

Chiara Fabbri is a member of the Pharmacogenomics Research Network (PGRN), which mission is to catalyze and lead research in precision medicine for the discovery and translation of genomic variation influencing therapeutic and adverse drug effects (https://www.pgrn.org). She is also a member of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, an international organization dedicated to facilitating research in the genetics of psychiatric disorders, promoting education and scientific collaboration in psychiatric genetics (https://ispg.net/).