Dr Elham Assary is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. She joined King's in 2022, after working as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences at Queen Mary University of London (2019 - 2022)

Dr Assary obtained her PhD at the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London (2014 - 2019). She has an MSc in Genes, Environment & Development at the SGDP Centre (2013 - 2014), and a BSc in Psychology at Birkbeck University of London (2009 -2013).

Dr Assary is interested in understanding the factors that contribute to individual differences in mental health and disorder. The focus of her research is to examine how genes and the environment influence the development of psychopathology or resilience to it. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to addressing this question by using behavioural genetic and genomic approaches, and data from twin and large cohort studies.

In her latest project, she used the MZ differences design to investigate genetic influences that are associated with greater sensitivity to environmental influences for a range of psychopathologies and subjective wellbeing.

Research interests

• Individual differences in mental health and disorder
• How genes and the environment influence the development of psychopathology or resilience to it
• Behavioural genetics and genomics
• Twin studies
• Large cohort studies

Expertise and public engagement

• International Conference travel grant, Guarantors of Brain, Cambridge University, UK (2017)
• PsyPAG international conference travel grant, UK (2016)
• Fragile Families travel award, Columbia University, US (2015)