Esteban Tato-Barcia is a Deputy Research Coordinator for the GLAD-MHG Study and a part‑time PhD candidate at the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience. Prior to his current role and doctoral research, Esteban Tato‑Barcia was an NIHR Pre‑Doctoral Research Fellow, working within the BioResource theme and the King’s Genomics Facility at the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Maudsley. During this period, he developed extensive experience in laboratory genomics and biobanking, including five years of hands‑on work with high‑throughput genomic methods.

He served as laboratory sample collection lead for the UKRI Urgent Public Health COVID‑CNS study, coordinating blood sample processing across 13 UK sites.

His technical background includes next‑generation sequencing library preparation, high‑throughput genotyping for GWAS and EWAS, real‑time PCR‑based assays, and DNA/RNA extraction and quantification. He also has substantial experience in biobank and LIMS‑based sample management, SOP development, and laboratory governance.

As part of his NIHR fellowship, he completed postgraduate training in Applied Statistical Modelling and Health Informatics, strengthening his expertise in quantitative and computational methods for health research.

His PhD research builds on this combined laboratory, informatics, and operational background, focusing on scalable and reproducible approaches to large‑scale mental health studies.

This includes work on implementation fidelity and AI‑enabled research operations, cohort‑scale speech‑based phenotyping using remotely collected voice data, and the development of transportable predictive models integrating clinical and genomic data.

Research interests

• Mood disorders
• Genetics systems biology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Speech and Language Processing
• Digital Phenotyping