About the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre
The Social, Genetic & 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, 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.
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We offer an MSc course in Developmental Psychology & Psychopathology.