Professor Gemma Modinos PhD FYAE MAE

Biography

Gemma studied a BSc in Psychology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, followed by an MSc in Applied Neurosciences at the University of Barcelona (Spain). She then moved to the Netherlands to do a PhD in Neuroscience (Cum Laude, highest distinction) at the University of Groningen. As a post-doc, Gemma moved to the UK to continue her academic career at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London.  

In 2013, Gemma received a prestigious NARSAD Young Investigator Award to examine the relationship between functional MRI activation during emotional processing and glutamate levels in healthy people with high schizotypy. In 2016, she was awarded a King’s Prize Fellowship to facilitate her transition to an independent research career, and shortly after received a Wellcome Trust & Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, allowing her to initiate her own lab at the IoPPN (see below). She was Chair of the Young Academy of Europe (2020-2022), an Academy of Medical Sciences’ SUSTAIN participant, and was the first female to win the SIRS Rising Star award (2019). 

Research Interests

The research in Modinos Lab uses multimodal neuroimaging approaches across humans and relevant animal models to understand the role of the neural mechanisms involved in emotional behaviour in the development of psychotic symptoms and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. We also use pharmacological imaging approaches to investigate whether targeting these mechanisms can help design new therapeutic strategies for psychosis.

Gemma also founded and co-chairs the global ENIGMA Schizotypy working group, the largest worldwide collaborative network for neuroimaging research in schizotypy. 

Research Groups

Gemma is the Principal Investigator of Modinos Lab, and Co-Chair of ENIGMA Schizotypy. She is also a Group Leader at the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

Expertise and Public Engagement

Gemma has been an invited speakers at several public engagement activities, such as the KCL Pint of Science (2015) and the Royal Society Platform "The next big things" at Hay Festival (2018). She also obtained a King’s Artists award in 2019, which allowed hosting artist Izzy Parker in her lab for an art-science collaboration entitled “Making emotions to reimagine mental health”: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/artists-in-residence/artists-in-psychiatry-psychology-neuroscience/izzyparker. She is an EDI Theme Representative at the NIHR Maudsley BRC.