Rate My Professor Livia Carvalho

Dr. Livia Carvalho is Senior Lecturer in Neuropsychopharmacology in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Precision Medicine at the William Harvey Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. She earned her BSc in Pharmacology and Biochemistry, MSc in Neurosciences, and PhD in Pharmacology from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She conducted postdoctoral training in psychoneuroimmunology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences, King's College London, under Professor Carmine Pariante, and in the Psychobiology Group at University College London with Professor Andrew Steptoe. Joining the William Harvey Research Institute as Lecturer in 2016, she also holds an Honorary Senior Lecturer post at the Department of Psychobiology, University of Malaga, Spain. A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Institute of Clinical Research, Carvalho has trained numerous researchers now in senior roles at institutions including UCL, King's College London, and University Hospital of Northern Sweden. She leads teaching modules such as Brain Behaviour and Immunity, contributes to clinical pharmacology courses, supervises PhD students and academic clinical fellows, and serves on the PhD Progression Panel and as a QMUL MentorNet member.

Carvalho's research centers on precision medicine in mental health, particularly immunophenotyping depression to inform treatment decisions, stratify patients, and identify novel anti-inflammatory targets for drug discovery and repositioning. Her translational work integrates laboratory-based experiments, clinical trials, and epidemiological cohorts to elucidate mechanisms linking peripheral immune activation, neuroendocrine disturbances, and mental illnesses like depression, including associations with physical conditions such as coronary heart disease and chronic kidney disease. Key publications include 'Shared mechanisms between coronary heart disease and depression: findings from a large UK general population-based cohort' (Molecular Psychiatry, 2020), 'DHEA and response to antidepressant treatment: A Mendelian Randomization analysis' (Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2024), 'Work hours, weekend working, nonstandard work schedules and sleep quantity and quality: findings from the UK household longitudinal study' (BMC Public Health, 2024), and 'A systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on inflammation in depressive illness and symptoms in chronic and end-stage kidney disease' (Psychological Medicine, 2023). With an h-index of 36 on Scopus, her contributions have advanced understanding of inflammation's role in psychiatric disorders. She is Associate Editor of Brain, Behaviour, and Immunity and has received Young Investigator Awards from NARSAD, the European Neuropsychopharmacology Society, the British Association for Psychopharmacology, and the American Psychosomatic Society.