Igor Branchi, Ph.D. is Researcher and Group leader at the Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Italian Institute of Health/Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy and visiting Professor of Behavioral biology at Sapienza, University of Rome. His main research interest is on the application of an integrative approach, spanning from molecules to behavior and the living environment, to investigate the neural bases of psychiatric disorders and therapeutic strategies.

He is also interested in exploiting sophisticated data analysis approaches to unravel the complexity of psychiatric disorders. Current efforts of his research group are directed towards the study of the neural bases of major depressive disorder and the mechanisms of action of antidepressants, exploring the interplay between brain serotonin function, neural plasticity, and the quality of the living environment. 

Special attention is paid to the role of epigenetic changes, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation and central and peripheral immune system function as key systems involved in psychopathology. Although much of his work has been so far on preclinical models, he is now involved in a number of clinical investigations aimed at exploring the efficacy of serotonergic antidepressant in relation to environmental factors and/or in combination with other drugs acting on inflammatory processes.

Silvia Poggini is a Researcher at the Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Italian Institute of Health/Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy. In February 2019, she obtained the Ph.D. in Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology at the School of Behavioural Neuroscience of Sapienza, University of Rome.

Her research project mainly focuses on the study of the interaction between serotoninergic antidepressants and inflammatory processes in the brain and behavioral plasticity and in the recovery from the major depressive disorder. In this framework, she had also the opportunity to spend some months at the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Zurich, where she increased her experimental skills and professional competence.

Her expertise includes the phenotyping of preclinical models of different mental disorders, performing both behavioral and molecular measurements. Besides, recently she has been involved in clinical investigations aimed at exploring the role of the gene-by-environment interaction in the vulnerability to depression and the efficacy of serotonergic antidepressant in relation to the environmental conditions.

In the ADORe project, Silvia is involved in planning and execution of the experiments, and analysis and interpretation of the data.

Naomi Ciano Albanese held a master’s degree in Neurobiology in 2018 at Sapienza, University of Rome. In 2019, she obtained a research fellowship at the Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Italian Institute of Health/Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Rome, Italy). Since November 2019, she is a Ph.D. student in Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology jointly at the Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Italian Institute of Health/Istituto Superiore di Sanità and at the School of Behavioural Neuroscience of Sapienza, University of Rome. The Ph.D. project mainly focuses on the study of the interplay between inflammatory processes and neural plasticity in the vulnerability and treatment of major depression.

Naomi is fully involved in the ADORe project, contributing to the design of the experiments, performing all the experimental procedures, and collecting and analyzing the data. In particular, she is performing the behavioral phenotyping of preclinical models, combining the traditional tests with the use of high-throughput automated approaches, and a number of cellular and molecular assays.