Giulia Lombardo is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society and a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology Lab and the Psychoimmunometabolix and Interaction with the Environment Lab at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London (KCL), where she has been based since 2017.

Dr Lombardo holds a BSc and an MSc in Psychology from the University of Trieste and the University of Turin, respectively, and completed her PhD in Psychological Medicine from King’s College London in 2022. Her research focuses on understanding the role of the immune system in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression, with a particular emphasis on sex differences and sex hormones. Overall, Dr Lombardo has contributed to several projects aimed at advancing personalised approaches to understanding and treating depression.

Alongside her research, Dr Lombardo is involved in teaching and peer reviewing and serves as module lead for the Psychology Module of the Psychology and Neuroscience of the Mind–Body Interface MSc at King’s College London (IoPPN). She is also a writer and editor for Inspire the Mind, a mental health digital magazine, and one of the Academic Leads of the Immunopsychiatry Meetings, organised in collaboration with the ECNP Immunoneuropsychiatry Network.

Research Interests

• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
• Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD)
• Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)
• Immunopsychiatry
• Endocrine
• Immune interactions
• Sex hormones
• Sex differences

Research Groups

The Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology Lab

Psychoimmunometabolix and Interaction with the Environment Lab

Teaching

• Sex differences in depression
• Sex hormones in mental health
• The role of sex and gender in depression