Dr Sara Javidnia is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Psychosis Studies at King’s College London, which she joined in 2025. Her research focuses on human genetics, Mendelian randomisation, colocalization and multi-omics approaches to elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Her current work examines the influence of cannabis use and the endocannabinoid system (ECS) on dementia, Parkinson’s disease psychosis and broader aspects of brain health.

Her expertise spans statistical genetics, causal inference, psychiatric and neurodegenerative genomics, imaging-derived phenotypes and experimental neuroscience. Before joining King’s, she held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Oxford, where she investigated the effects of opioid use disorder on brain structure and dementia risk. She previously trained at Yale University, gaining experience in live and fixed neuronal imaging using confocal microscopy.

Sara completed her PhD in Genetics and Ageing at University College London, using Drosophila as a model system to study conserved mechanisms of ageing—particularly the role of ribosome biogenesis—and applied Mendelian randomisation to translate experimental findings into human populations. She has contributed to teaching and supervision at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals across psychiatric, neurodegenerative and ageing science.

Research interests

• Causal inference methods, including Mendelian randomisation and colocalisation.
• Cannabis and opioid use, and their impact on brain and cognitive outcomes.
• Dementia, Parkinson’s disease psychosis and related neurodegenerative processes.
• Ageing biology and genetic contributions to age-related brain disorders.
• Translational genetics bridging experimental and population-based research

Research Groups

I am a member of the CAN-PDP Research Group, led by Professor Sagnik Bhattacharyya, which conducts clinical trials investigating the effects of cannabidiol on Parkinson’s disease psychosis within the Department of Psychosis Studies at the IoPPN.