About Us

The immunopsychiatry research group is based at the University of Bristol within the  Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit  and the  Centre for Academic Mental Health. The group investigates the role of inflammation in psychiatric disorders, neurodevelopment, cognition, and in physical and psychiatric multimorbidity across the life course using population data, genetics, and early-phase clinical trials. The aim of our work is to identify and validate novel immunological mechanisms and treatment options for psychiatric disorders, with a focus on depression and schizophrenia. This work is clinically important because depression and schizophrenia affect one in four people in their lifetime, but one in three people affected by these illnesses do not respond to currently available treatments.

The group is led by Golam Khandaker, Professor of Psychiatry at Bristol Medical School, Head of Translational Mental Health Programme at the  Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the  Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

We are happy to hear from people interested in mental health research including prospective students, staff, collaborators, study participants, the media, and people with lived experience of mental illness.