Professor Cathy Fernandes is a behavioural geneticist and pharmacologist with more than 30 years’ experience working in rodent behaviour. She originally trained as a psychopharmacologist at Guy’s Hospital, working on rodent models of behaviour (anxiety, exploratory activity and cognition) and mechanisms of drug dependence. She moved out of academic research in 1998 for a short period to gain experience in the field of science communication and education. She returned to academia in 2000 to take up a post at the Royal Free & University College Medical School on an innovative project studying the molecular mechanisms of antidepressant drug action.  

In 2001, she moved to the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's to work on a project investigating the functional genomics of mouse behaviour using both candidate gene association and gene expression profiling techniques. She was subsequently awarded a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship in 2006 which she took to the Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where she leads a project on gene x environment interactions in an animal model of depression.

She returned to the IoPPN in 2007 on a Research Councils UK (RCUK) Fellowship, joining the Department of Psychosis Studies. She leads a research project on the effect of cannabis use in adolescence as a risk factor for schizophrenia using animal models. At the end of this fellowship, she re-joined the SGDP Centre as a lecturer and member of the Executive Committee, promoting to Senior Lecturer in 2014, Reader in 2018 and Professor in 2021.

She currently heads the ‘Preclinical Models of Neurodevelopmental Disorders’ group at the SGDP Centre, investigating the contribution of environment and molecular mechanisms to a range of neurodevelopmental (schizophrenia, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder and autism) and psychiatric disorders (anxiety, depression).  She is also a founding member of the  MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

Professor Fernandes has been responsible for developing new methods at the SGDP Centre, including using microarrays for gene expression, and establishing a mouse behavioural testing unit to assess a wide range of behaviours related to psychiatric disorders.  

She is the Past President of the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society (IBANGS).

In addition to her research role, she is the School of Mental Health & Psychological Sciences (MHaPS) Education Lead with oversight of all undergraduate and postgraduate courses. She has more than 30 years teaching experience, ranging from undergraduate to specialist courses. In support of her teaching practice, she has a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP; King’s College London 2011) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She established the successful MSc in Genes, Environment & Development in Psychology & Psychiatry at the SGDP Centre which launched in September 2013.

Research interests

• Genetic and environmental factors contributing to neurodevelopmental disorders,  anxiety and depression
• Rodent genetic models of neurodevelopmental disorders  
• Rodent environmental models such as prenatal stress (maternal obesity), early life stress (maternal separation), chronic stress (unpredictable chronic mild stress) and drug exposure (cannabis) 
• Animal welfare 

Teaching

• Neuropharmacology
• Animal behaviour
• Brain anatomy
• Behavioural genetics
• Transferable skills (academic writing, oral communication) 

Expertise and public engagement

Professor Fernandes has organised and contributed to several public engagement and widening participation lectures and science activities with DevNeuro Academy, Autistica, local schools, King’s K+ Academic Day (part of King’s long-term widening participation programme) and the Linacre Institute.

She is a consultant for the Science Media Centre (an independent press office helping to ensure that the public have access to the best scientific evidence and expertise through the news media when science hits the headlines).