Biography
Dr Maria Antonietta Nettis, known commonly as Etta, joined KCL in December 2015 as visiting researcher. In 2017 she started a full-time PhD in the department of Psychological studies, with the Stress Psychiatry and Immunology Lab, on the role of the immune system in the development and treatment of Major Depressive Disorder. Her areas of expertise are Immunopyschiatry and the interface between physical and mental health.
She is a Consultant Psychiatrist, She completed her clinical training in Italy (2017) and her PhD at KCL (2021).
She now works as Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Research Fellow for South London and Maudsley NHS Trust.
Research Interests
Immunopsychiatry
Interface between physical and mental health
Women's mental health
Research Groups
Stress Psychiatry and Immunology Group
Teaching
January 2021-current
Lecturer for the Therapeutic Research module of Psychiatric Research Master. Lecture’s title: “Pharmacological Management of Depression”.
November 2020-current
Lecturer for the Women’s mental health module of Mental Health Studies Master. Lecture’s title: Metabolic abnormalities in Psychiatric disorders: an overview with considerations on gender differences.
January 2019- current
Lecturer for the Biological Psychiatry module of Psychiatric Research Master. Lecture’s title: Metabolic abnormalities in Psychiatric disorders
November 2019-current
Supervisor of master students for Psychiatry Research MSc for the preparation of their final dissertation.
Expertise and Public Engagement
Etta is an active writer on the website “InSPIreTheMind”. This is an online platform where researchers and guest writers write about their research findings in plain English to make research accessible to the general public.
Among her most popular blogs are those related to my research on inflammation “From the body to the brain”, on “Treatment Resistant Depression” and her series of blogs on the experience of women in STEM and the impact of gender bias in Academia.
Her interview with Prof Paola Dazzan (Institute of Psychiatry, KCL) about current challenges and resources for women in Academia achieved considerable resonance and popularity (~1.7K views).
So far, she has written several blogs for InspireTheMind and for the NIHR-BRC, with over 3K views and over 1K reads (last blog published in March 2022 on using MRI to detect brain inflammation).
Finally, she is the first guest of the podcast launched by InspireTheMind: "At the Back of your mind". In this podcast (to be released in May), she talks ofher research, clinical experience and of women in STEM.