Xuemei started her PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) in 2019. She is involved in the eBRAIN study (Early experiences and neurodevelopmental trajectories in young adolescents) and is supervised by Prof Paola Dazzan, Prof Chiara Nosarti and Dr Ana Rodriguez-Mateos.

Xuemei is interested in child health and nutritional psychiatry, and her PhD project is to investigate the role of the inflammatory system and nutrition in the relationship between early life adversity and mental health problems in adolescents.

Before joining IoPPN, Xuemei got her Bachelor's Degree of Medicine and Master's Degree of Medicine at Fudan University, Shanghai, China, where she spent eight years studying preventive medicine and perinatal epidemiology.

Research interests

• Early life adversity
• Inflammation
• Nutritional psychiatry
• Resilience
• Perinatal epidemiology

Key publications

Pollard, B., Chen, P. J., Mackes, N., Lawrence, A., Ma, X., Matter, M., Kretzer, S., Morgan, C., Harding, S., Schumann, G., Pariante, C., Mehta, M., Montana, G., Nosarti, C., Desrivieres, S., Rodriguez Mateos, A. M., & Dazzan, P. (2022). The eBRAIN study: The impact of early adversity on trajectories of brain maturation and mental health in young adolescents – A prospective cohort study. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2022.100539

Ma, X., Biaggi, A., Sacchi, C., Lawrence, A., Chen, P. J., Pollard, R., Matter, M., Mackes, N., Hazelgrove, K., Morgan, C., Harding, S., Simonelli, A., Schumann, G., Pariante, C., Mehta, M., Montana, G., Rodriguez Mateos, A. M., Nosarti, C., & Dazzan, P. (2022). Mediators and moderators in the relationship between maternal childhood adversity and children's emotional and behavioural development: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine, 52(10), 1817-1837. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001775

Chen, P. J., Mackes, N., Sacchi, C., Lawrence, A. J., Ma, X., Pollard, R., Matter, M., Morgan, C., Harding, S., Schumann, G., Pariante, C., Mehta, M. A., Montana, G., Nosarti, C., & Dazzan, P. (2022). Parental education and youth suicidal behaviours: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 31, e19. [e19]. https://doi.org/10.1017/S204579602200004X

Ma, X., Yang, Y., Wei, Q., Jiang, H., & Shi, H. (2021). Development and validation of the reproductive health literacy questionnaire for Chinese unmarried youth. Reproductive Health, 18(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-021-01278-6

Wei, Q., Shi, H., Ma, X., Shi, Y., Zhang, Y., & Wang, L. (2021). The impact of maternal stress on offspring birth weight and the mediating effect of dietary patterns: The Shanghai Maternal-Child Pairs Cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 278, 643-649. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.077

Ma, X., Wei, Q., Jiang, Z., Shi, Y., Zhang, Y., & Shi, H. (2020). The role of serum oxytocin levels in the second trimester in regulating prenatal anxiety and depression: A sample from Shanghai Maternal-Child Pairs Cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 264, 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.12.019

Ma, X., Wang, Y., Hu, H., Tao, X. G., Zhang, Y., & Shi, H. (2019). The impact of resilience on prenatal anxiety and depression among pregnant women in Shanghai. Journal of affective disorders, 250, 57-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.02.058