Principal investigator

Medical Director of the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and Deputy Director of the Central Institute of Mental Health.

Katja Bertsch is a Professor for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg.

Natalia Chechko’s research group investigates neuroscientific and bioscientific aspects of various psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and autism spectrum disorder. Cerebral dysfunctions in women of reproductive age who suffer from affective disorders, e.g. postpartum depression, psychosomatic illnesses or chronic pain disorders, are a particular focus. The aim is to record emotional and cognitive dysfunctions multimodally in order to enable early detection and predict the response to therapy in affected women. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to analyse cerebral dysfunctions during visual, olfactory and nociceptive stimulation. Psychological test procedures and laboratory measurement techniques, such as blood serum analyses and hair sample analyses, are also used. Other influencing factors such as genetic disposition are also taken into account.

Professor Andreas G Chiocchetti is passionate about working with models to understand human behaviour and neurodiversity. Biotechnologist by training (Salzburg, Austria), Phd in Genetics, Research Fellow at UCLA, Los Angeles, ex Data-Scientist in Industry. Member of the Equal Opportunity and Diversity working group at the TRR379.

Christine Ecker is a professor at Goethe University Frankfurt, specializing in clinical neuroscience and psychiatry. Her research focuses on the neurobiological underpinnings of autism spectrum disorders and other neurodevelopmental conditions, utilizing advanced neuroimaging techniques. Ecker’s work aims to bridge the gap between clinical practice and neuroscience to improve diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for these disorders.

Gabriele Ende is a researcher associated with the Central Institute of Mental Health (ZI) in Mannheim, Germany. Her work primarily focuses on neuroimaging and the application of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in psychiatric and neurological disorders. Ende’s research aims to deepen the understanding of brain chemistry and its alterations in various mental health conditions.

Professor Christine M Freitag focuses on Translational research in Neurodevelopmental, Anxiety and Disruptive Behavior Disorders in children and youth. Her methods comprise biostatistics, diagnostic and biomarker studies, randomized-controlled trials (phase-IIa, phase-III), brain stimulation and behavioural/psychotherapeutic interventions.

Thomas Frodl is a prominent neuroscientist and psychiatrist affiliated with RWTH Aachen University in Germany. His research focuses on the neurobiological underpinnings of psychiatric disorders, particularly depression and anxiety. Frodl employs advanced neuroimaging techniques to investigate brain structure and function, aiming to understand the mechanisms that contribute to these conditions. His work is instrumental in developing more effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, bridging the gap between clinical practice and neuroscience research.

Professor Ute Habel is a distinguished academic at RWTH Aachen University, renowned for her expertise in neuropsychology. Her research delves into the neural mechanisms of emotions, cognition, and psychiatric disorders, utilizing advanced neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI. With a prolific output of publications, she significantly contributes to the understanding of brain function in both health and disease. As a dedicated educator, she mentors students and fosters interdisciplinary collaborations, making substantial impacts on both academic research and clinical practices in neuropsychology and psychiatry.

Michael Hanke is a professor at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, and head of the Psychoinformatics group in the Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich. He has co-created several neuroinformatics software projects, among them the NeuroDebian, PyMVPA, and DataLad.

Prof Dr Sabine C Herpertz studied human medicine in Bonn, obtained her doctorate in Frankfurt aM and habilitated in psychiatry and psychotherapy at RWTH Aachen University. Between 2002 and 2003, she held a professorship for Experimental Psychopathology at RWTH Aachen University before taking over the Chair of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Rostock between 2003 and 2009. Since 2009, she has been Chair of General Psychiatry at Heidelberg University Hospital, Medical Director of the clinic of the same name and spokesperson for the Centre for Psychosocial Medicine. Her research focuses on the investigation of emotions and social functions in patients with personality disorders and trauma-associated disorders using experimental psychopathology and neuroscientific methods, in particular functional imaging. Reactive aggression is another focus of her research in personality disorders. She is Past President of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ISSPD) and has published many book chapters and journal articles on personality disorders. A second focus of her research is the development and evaluation of psychotherapeutic interventions.

Nathalie Holz is leader of the research group Developmental neuroscience in psychiatry at the ZI Mannheim.

Kerstin Konrad is affiliated with the RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich, where she specializes in developmental psychology and neuroscience. Her research primarily focuses on the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying attention and executive functions in children and adolescents. Through her work, Konrad aims to better understand developmental disorders such as ADHD, contributing valuable insights to the field of child psychology and cognitive development.

Prof Christoph Korn heads the Decision Neuroscience of Human Interactions laboratory (http://www.dnhi-lab.org/) at Heidelberg University in the Department of General Adult Psychiatry. He is particularly interested in decision-making behaviour, especially in social situations, and its neuronal basis. To this end, he uses computational models and also focuses on psychiatric disorders. Junior Professor Christoph Korn’s research group is funded as part of the Emmy Noethe Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Klaus Mathiak is a professor at RWTH Aachen University, specializing in psychiatry and psychotherapy. His research integrates neuroimaging, psychophysiology, and clinical studies to understand the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition, aggression, and media influence on behavior. Mathiak’s work aims to enhance therapeutic interventions for psychiatric disorders by elucidating the brain’s role in social and emotional processing.

Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg is a distinguished psychiatrist and neuroscientist based in Germany, renowned for his groundbreaking research on the neurobiological underpinnings of psychiatric disorders. He serves as the Director of the Central Institute of Mental Health (ZI) in Mannheim and is a professor at the University of Heidelberg. Meyer-Lindenberg’s work focuses on understanding how genetic and environmental factors influence brain function and contribute to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression. His contributions have significantly advanced the field of psychiatric neuroscience, providing deeper insights into the mechanisms of mental health disorders and informing the development of more effective treatments.

Research group leader, research assistant

Andreas Reif is a German Psychiatrist, who received his training at the University Hospital Würzburg, where he also did his residency and later on became Vice Chair. In 2014, he took over the position of Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University Medical Center Frankfurt, where he is also full professor. ARs clinical and research interests include affective disorders (TRD, bipolar disorder, suicidality) and adult ADHD; his research is translational in nature and revolves around the ideas of precision psychiatry, i.e. identifying the best therapy at the exact time for a given individual patient. He has published more than 650 original papers and reviews, also in the most prestigious journals such a the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet and Science, and has an h² index of 97. He is an internationally renowned speaker and active in several learned societies, especially the German Psychiatric Association (DGPPN), where he is an executive board member, as well as ECNP, where he is president elect. Also, he is involved in several clinical guidelines and outreach programs.

Junior Professor at the Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital RWTH Aachen.

Dr. Wolfgang Retz is Professor of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and heads the Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy section at the Mainz University Medical Center as well as the Institute for Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry at the Saarland University in Homburg/Saar. For many years he has been scientifically working on ADHD in adults and the significance of this developmental disorder for criminal behavior across the lifespan. He has published numerous scientific papers on the neurobiological and environmental architecture of aggressive behavior as well as the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in adults. As a forensic psychiatrist, he is a respected expert in criminal proceedings and is involved in the interdisciplinary training of forensic psychiatrists and psychologists.

Professor David Slattery is interested in understanding of the neurobiology and treatment of stress-related disorders; with an emphasis on mood and anxiety disorders. A particular focus is the study postpartum mood and anxiety disorders using stress- and diet-based models in rodents, as well as:

Lichtenberg-Professor (Full Professor, W3) for Chemosensation, Department of Biology II, RWTH Aachen University

Junior Professor for Social and Affective Neurosciences

Carmen Weidler is a neuroscientist whose research primarily focuses on the neural underpinnings of aggressive and impulsive behavior. Her work explores the effects of brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), on behavioral and neural correlates of aggression and impulsivity in violent criminal offenders, patients with mental disorders, and healthy individuals. The primary aim of her research is to achieve a better understanding of the individual and methodological factors that enhance the efficacy of tDCS.