Chiara Caserini

I am a 1+3 LISS DTP PhD student between Queen Mary University of London and KCL. I'm currently attending the MSc in Developmental psychology and psychopathology at SGDP. My PhD research line aims to investigate neurodiversity, considering genetic and environmental mechanisms, though a multidisciplinary perspective.I have a background in clinical psychology, having completed a MSc in Clinical Psychology and a BSc in Psychological Sciences at Sigmund Freud University of Milan/Wien. I have always been particularly fascinated by the link between genetic and epigenetic mechanism, and mental health from early childhood; for this reason, I spent the last three years gaining international research experiences, working between The Netherlands, UK and Spain. For my MSc dissertation, I spent 7 months at the Erasmus Medical Center of Rotterdam, working on DNA methylation and the general psychopathology factor in children, based on Generation R data. After this, I completed a 1-year research internship at KCL, supervised by Professor Ted Barker, studying polygenic risk scores for inflammation related to typical and atypical depression in ALSPAC. Finally, I spent the last year in Madrid working as a research assistant at Gregorio Maranon Hospital, studying DNA methylation and genetic pathways characterising neurodevelopmental disorders in preterm babies. 

Research interests

• Psychiatric Genetics
• Psychiatric Epigenetics
• Gene-environment interplay
• Psychopathology trajectories

Research groups

• Developmental Psychopathology Lab at KCL
• Biological & Experimental Psychology Lab at QMUL

Key Publications

• Caserini, C., Ferro, M., Nobile, M., Scaini, S., & Michelini, G. (2022). Sharedgenetic influences between depression and conduct disorder in children andadolescents: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders.
• Rijlaarsdam, J., Barker, E. D., Caserini, C., Koopman-Verhoeff, M. E., Mulder, R.H., Felix, J. F., & Cecil, C. A. (2021). Genome-wide DNA methylation patternsassociated with general psychopathology in children. Journal of psychiatricresearch, 140, 214-220.
• Gurriarán, X., González-Peñas, J., Caserini, C., Merchán-Naranjo, J., Santos, L., Recio, S., ... & Pina-Camacho, L. (2022). DNA METHYLATION IN EXTREMELY PRETERM BIRTH: RELATIONSHIPS WITH NEURODEVELOPMENT, PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS AND NEONATAL ACCELERATED AGING. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 63, e129-e130