Dr Zuzanna Zajkowska joined King’s College London in 2013 and completed her PhD in Psychological Medicine there in 2017. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, where her work focuses on depression and the biological, psychological, and environmental risk factors that contribute to mental health difficulties across adolescence and adulthood.

Her expertise lies in depression, immunopsychiatry, and the interaction between social adversity and biological mechanisms in the development of depression. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed scientific journals in these areas.

Dr Zajkowska is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and has taught across several MSc programmes at King’s College London. She is currently Module Lead for Neuroscience, Dissertation, and Placement on the MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface. In addition to her research and teaching, she has contributed as a science writer and editor for Inspire the Mind, a digital mental health magazine, and co-leads the Immunopsychiatry meetings series in collaboration with the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP).

Research Interests

Areas of research/supervision:

• Depression across adolescence and adulthood
• Biomarkers of depression
• Immunopsychiatry
• The HPA axis and stress-related mechanisms in depression
• Childhood trauma, stress, and social adversity as risk factors for depression
• Biological and environmental influences on depression
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Research Groups

Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology Lab

Psychoimmunometabolix & Interaction with the Environment Lab

Teaching

Dr Zajkowska teaches across Neuroscience, Psychology and Psychological Therapies/Therapeutic approaches subjects for MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface and MSc in Mental Health Studies.

Expertise and Public Engagement

Dr Zajkowska engages in public dissemination of research through science writing. She has written blog articles based on my research and broader mental health topics for platforms such as Inspire the Mind and MQ Mental Health. Her research has also been featured by other science communication platforms and in newspapers, including The Independent (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/adolescence-new-zealand-nepal-nigeria-b2410627.html).