Professor Julio Licinio is passionate about mind and brain research that can have a positive impact on people’s lives.
Globally-renowned Professor Julio Licinio has been appointed as the inaugural Mind and Brain Theme Leader for the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), and as Professor of Psychiatry Research at Flinders University.
He will assume the roles on 1 April.
At SAHMRI, Professor Licinio will be responsible for building a cohesive Mind and Brain Theme that will investigate depression and its medical consequences, such as obesity, all the way from discovery in the lab to clinical and population-based research.
Professor Licinio says he is inspired by the unique opportunity that SAHMRI presents for world-class researchers to work closely with mental health reseachers across the state, as well as other research centres across Australia and around the world.
“It has become evident that in order to make major progress towards such common and complex diseases like depression, we must unite and work together. Our work begins in the lab and clinic, and must flow through to the community in order to truly have an impact. I am confident that SAHMRI has the vision and capacity to support this cycle,” Professor Licinio said.
“I am also delighted to have the opportunity as SAHMRI’s first Deputy Director for Translational Medicine to develop key local, national and international partnerships that will advance SAHMRI’s translational agenda.
“For example, I am excited to announce that this year we will establish an International Translational Psychiatry Consortium, that will consist of a group of 35 researchers across 10 countries (Australia, USA, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Singapore and China) working together all the way from molecular research and proposed treatments to advanced translational research in depression.”
Professor Licinio will also bring the editorial staff of three Nature Publishing Group journals to SAHMRI of which he is chief editor, including the world’s leading psychiatry journal – Translational Psychiatry and Molecular Psychiatry.
