Division of Psychology & Systems Sciences

Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience

Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre

About the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre

The Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre is an interdisciplinary research centre that focuses on how genetics (‘nature’) and the environment (‘nurture’) interact to affect psychiatric disorders, neurodevelopmental conditions, and individual differences across development. Scientists at the SGDP lead some of the UK’s foremost longitudinal cohort and twin studies including TEDS, eRISK, Dunedin, IMAGEN and GLAD.

Collaborative interdisciplinary research and training are the hallmarks of the SGDP, with research encompassing behavioural genetics, molecular genetics, experimental psychology and psychiatry, and neuroimaging. We also have strong analytical themes in statistical genetics, twin modelling and epidemiology, applying innovative methodological tools to unpack the environmental and genetic contributors to risk and resilience in mental health and cognitive development. Our links with clinicians and clinical medicine enable us to maximise the impact of our research for clinical practice and public health policy.

The Centre’s focus is on common psychiatric disorders and neurodevelopmental conditions that emerge in childhood and adolescence, such as mood disorders (anxiety and depression), ‘externalising’ disorders (disruptive behaviour including hyperactivity and addictions), and neurocognitive conditions (learning disabilities and the autistic spectrum). The academics within the Centre are extraordinarily diverse, with multi-disciplinary expertise across psychiatry, developmental and social psychology, psychopathology, personality and cognitive traits, statistical genetics, epigenetics, molecular genetics, behavioural genetics and neuroimaging. To support these diverse research programmes, the Centre is equipped with cutting-edge research facilities, including laboratories with state-of-the-art genomics, epigenomics and biomarker assay equipment.

The SGDP hosts more than 50 PhD students, and our alumni have gone on to be outstanding scientists and clinicians at leading institutions internationally. We have strong cohorts of postdoctoral researchers – both clinical and non-clinical – many of whom hold prestigious fellowships to begin building their own research programmes within the Centre. The SGDP’s research programmes attract clinical and nonclinical researchers through the critical mass of interdisciplinary expertise gathered under one roof, with our cutting-edge research furthering the understanding of the root causes of common conditions such as anxiety, depression, autism, disruptive behaviour or cognitive impairment.

We offer two MSc courses in Genes, Environment and Development in Psychology & Psychiatry and in Developmental Psychology & Psychopathology.

SGDP Centre group photo

Our courses

Developmental Psychology & Psychopathology MSc

Duration One year

Developmental Psychology & Psychopathology MSc. Benefit from comprehensive coverage of the field exploring how biological, behavioural and cognitive processes, along with family and wider social forces, can affect typical and atypical development. The course is ideal if you plan to work/are working in mental health with young people, or you are looking to progress to the DClinPsy or a PhD. Placements and clinical observerships are available.

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Genes, Environment & Development in Psychology & Psychiatry MSc

Duration One year FT.

Our Genes, Environment & Development in Psychology & Psychiatry MSc course provides interdisciplinary training in a range of behavioural genetics topics and research methods relevant to psychology and psychiatry.

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Social Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry MD(Res)/MPhil/PhD

Duration For a traditional PhD, expected to be three years FT, five to six years PT; for MSc and PhD, expected to be one and three years. Email ioppn.educationsupport@kcl.ac.uk or SGDP-programme-admin@kcl.ac.uk for further information.

MPhil/PhD from the MRC Centre for Social Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry at King's College London.

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Professor Louise Arseneault

Professor of Developmental Psychology
Professor Philip Asherson

Professor of Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry
Professor Gerome Breen

Professor of Psychiatric Genetics
Professor Avshalom Caspi

Chair in Social/Personality Psychology
Ms Lilli Cleghorn

Business Manager SGDP
Professor Ian Craig

Professor Of Molecular Genetics (Emeritus)
Professor Andrea Danese

Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Dr Sylvane Desrivieres

Reader of Genetics
Professor Thalia Eley

Professor of Developmental Behavioural Genetics
Dr Cathy Fernandes

Reader in Preclinical Models of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Dr Helen Fisher

Reader in Developmental Psychopathology
Professor Francesca Happé

Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
Professor Jonna Kuntsi

Professor of Developmental Disorders and Neuropsychiatry
Professor Cathryn Lewis

Professor of Genetic Epidemiology & Statistics
Professor Barbara Maughan

Professor of Developmental Epidemiology
Dr Tom McAdams

Sir Henry Dale Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
Dr Grainne McLoughlin

Senior Lecturer
Professor Terrie E. Moffitt

Chair in Social Behaviour & Development
Professor Robert Plomin

Professor of Behavioural Genetics
Dr Timothy Powell

Honorary Lecturer & Research Fellow
Professor Fruhling Rijsdijk

Professor of Statistical Genetics
Dr Stuart Ritchie

Lecturer
Professor Sir Michael Rutter

Professor of Developmental Psychopathology
Professor Gunter Schumann

Professor of Biological Psychiatry
Professor Eric Taylor

Emeritus Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Dr Chloe Wong

Senior Lecturer in Epigenetics
Dr Katherine Young

Lecturer

Click here for a full list of people associated with this department

Our current research groups

ADHD and Associated Disorders – Asherson & Kuntsi

Our research focuses on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders that often co-occur with ADHD. We take a developmental approach, studying the disorders and traits from childhood to adulthood.

Danese Lab: Stress & Development

The Lab aims to understand how stressful experiences in childhood affect development and later health, and how to best support children who had such traumatic experiences.

Emotional Development Intervention and Treatment (EDIT) Lab

Led by Prof Thalia Eley the lab explores the role of genes and the environment on the development and treatment of anxiety, depression and related traits, based at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London

Environmental-Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study

Centre for Population Neuroscience and Precision Medicine (PONS)

The Centre for Population Neuroscience and Precision Medicine (PONS) aims at establishing and analysing big neuroimaging genetic datasets to precisely identify brain mechanisms underlying behaviour, and their genetic and environmental mediators, thus enabling prediction and stratification of mental disorders.

ReSpect Lab: Researching Autism across the Spectrum and Lifespan

The ReSpect Lab, led by Professor Francesca Happé, comprises researchers and postgraduate students actively engaged in researching autism across the spectrum and lifespan.

CATHRYN TEAM Statistical Genetics SGDP 1

The Statistical Genetics Unit

Our aims are to develop and apply statistical methods to identify and characterise the genetic component to common, complex disorders.

Twins Early Development Study (TEDS)

Postgraduate Taught

MSc Genes, Environment & Development in Psychology & Psychiatry

The MSc Genes, Environment & Development in Psychology and Psychiatry (GED PP) programme takes a highly interdisciplinary approach to the study of how genetics and the environment ('nature and nurture') combine during human development to produce behaviour, diseases and psychiatric disorders. Students are taught by world leading experts and receive training across multiple research fields: molecular & behavioural genetics, twin modelling, statistical genetics, epigenetics, bioinformatics, social and cognitive psychology and developmental psychiatry. Find out more and apply

MSc Developmental Psychology & Psychopathology

Develop knowledge about the causes of typical and atypical psychological development, the standard psychological therapies and treatments available, and research methods and statistics relevant to this field. There is particular focus on development during childhood and on nature versus nurture to try to explain psychological development. The psychopathology part of the course focuses on the development of disorders such as autism, depression and ADHD. The course will provide you with both a research and clinical focus. The course has been created for students coming from diverse academic backgrounds and professional disciplines and is designed to develop skills, experience and knowledge that will allow graduates to take up roles in different professional settings including studying a PhD. The programme’s flexible structure will enable students to choose and pick different combinations of modules and delivery modes (some Distance Learning alternatives) as well as optional credited Placements to gain experience that will facilitate your specific career pathway. Find out more and apply

Information about IoPPN Masters scholarships is available here.

Postgraduate Research

Further details about our traditional PhD programme can be viewed at the KCL Online Prospectus.

If you wish to apply for the SGDP Centre's traditional PhD programme, you should:

Identify and approach a potential supervisor. Information about potential supervisors at the Centre can be viewed here.

Start to consider/identify funding opportunities*. For further information on funding opportunities available visit our Postgraduate research funding page.

*Studentships for our traditional PhD programme will be advertised on this page. Studentships for the following academic year are normally advertised around January-February. Applicants not applying for an advertised studentship must attach the following to their application: