Principal Investigators:

For more details on current projects for the team, please go to the Lab projects section.

Here is a list of all our publications.

Staff:

Ben is Assistant Professor and principal investigator on the Accelerate Science award Trusting Qualitative AI: The Cambridge Protocol. This project will develop a novel methodology and protocol for ethically integrating qualitative analysis with AI. Ben works closely with the PsyMetRiC team (University of Birmingham) to understand how qualitative methods can improve physical health communication for young people with psychosis.

Previously, Ben has used qualitative methods to study how people experience, interpret, and navigate emotions and institutional contexts. His work began with a focus on emotional expression and regulation in prisons, followed by research into the emotional landscapes of the Northern European asylum system.

Amelia is Programme Manager for the MH-TRC Mission Early Psychosis workstream and Early Intervention Mission cohort study.

Emma is a post‑doctoral data scientist specialising in psychiatric electronic health records . She completed her PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, KCL, with a focus on antipsychotic treatment strategies using NHS datasets.

Her research aims to harness routine clinical data to improve decision‑making and patient outcomes in psychiatry. This currently includes consensus work on common data models for psychiatric EHRs, in collaboration with industry partner AKRIVIA Health, and using EHR data to investigate the physical health impacts and treatment trajectories of antipsychotics in first‑episode psychosis.

Naruto is an academic clinical fellow with an interest in psychotic disorders. His primary research focus analyses electronic health records of individuals with severe mental illnesses and their psychiatric and physical health outcomes. His secondary interest is in decolonising mental health services in the community for people with psychotic disorders and other mental health issues.

Postgraduate Students:

Shrankla works at the intersection of Psychiatry and Artificial Intelligence, co-supervised by Graham Murray and Sarah Morgan (King’s College London and Department of Computer Science, University of Cambridge). Her research explores how computational methods—including machine learning, natural language processing, and speech analysis—can be used to better understand and support mental health. She holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and a master’s in Statistics and Health Informatics. 

Jim is interested in neuroscience, and uses imaging to make sense of psychosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

Benji has interests in cognitive neuroscience and novel assessment tools and therapeutics for psychiatric conditions. The focus of his PhD is on the feasibility and efficacy of mobile (smartphone) cognitive assessments in patients with psychosis.

Yueming’s research investigates the neurogenetic mechanisms of psychiatric disorders. Her research combines genetic data with diffusion MRI to examine microstructural alterations in subcortical grey matter, with a particular focus on psychosis.

Chantal’s PhD focuses on the cognitive mechanisms underlying psychosis, the at-risk mental state and schizotypy. Specifically, she uses the predictive processing framework, often described as a unified theory of brain function, to analyse how aberrant weighting of prior expectations contributes to hallucinations and delusions. This entails a range of methods including mixed modelling, factor analysis, meta-analysis and high-field laminar fMRI.

Brian is a psychiatry Senior Registrar from Cork, Ireland and is undertaking a PhD in University College Dublin. His PhD aims to quantify antipsychotic-induced weight gain in drug naive First-Episode Psychosis, and to see if the weight gain can be channelled into gaining muscle mass through use of resistance training. Brian is interested in data science and psychosis, and outside of academia he enjoys fitness and GAA.

Medical Students:

Suleyman is interested in the relationship between inflammation and mental health.

Main collaborators

Mary-Ellen is a neuroimmunologist and psychiatrist who leads the BioMindLab, working between the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. She is also co-founder and co-chair of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Functional Genomics Workgroup, an international hub for large-scale, open science. She serves as blood biomarker lead for the UKRI Mental Health Platform.

Dr Emilio Fernandez-Egea is a psychiatrist at the University of Cambridge whose research focuses on treatment-resistant schizophrenia, particularly the biological mechanisms underlying negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction. He integrates clinical trials, neuroimaging, and biomarker studies to develop more effective, personalised interventions.

Kimberley is an Academic Consultant Psychiatrist at Cardiff University. She conducts research into the genetic basis of psychosis and related phenotypes, with a particular emphasis on rare copy number variants and on translating findings into clinical practice. Clinically, Kimberley works at the All Wales Psychiatric Genomics Service, the UK’s first dedicated psychiatric genomics clinical service, where psychiatric genetic findings are translated into patient care.

I am professor of psychiatry and informatics at the University of Cambridge, a liaison psychiatrist at CPFT and CUH, and a non-executive director at CPFT and CUHP. I am chief investigator for the CPFT Research Database.

Visiting staff

Marta is a psychiatrist in Udine, Italy, and is doing a PhD – supervised by prof Colizzi – on mental health problems in people with autism and LD. She is a visiting student at the University of Cambridge. Her interests include psychosis and psychiatric epidemiology.

Vicent Llorca-Bofí is a psychiatrist at the Barcelona Clinic Schizophrenia Unit, Hospital Clínic Barcelona, Spain. His research focuses on schizophrenia spectrum disorders, including biomarkers and treatment development. He is a visiting psychiatrist and postdoctoral researcher in the group.

Alumni (since 2025)

Ines supported the PPiP2 and Early Intervention Mission studies.