Dr. Annamaria Cattaneo is Associate Professor at the University of Milan, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences and Head of the Laboratory of Biological Psychiatry at the IRCCS Fatebenefratelli Institute.Her main interest is devoted to the understanding of the mechanisms linking adversities early in life (both prenatally and postnatally) with an enhanced vulnerability to develop mental disorders later in life, with a particular focus on neuroplasticity, inflammation, and stress response. She is also particularly interested in the identification of peripheral biomarkers associated with the risk to develop mental disorders as well as with treatment response. Recently she has also focused the attention on the gut microbiome as link between the environment, the immune system and brain functionality.She is coordinating several national and international projects including those aimed at the identification of early predictors of risk for the development of mood disorders and biomarkers of treatment response (RLINK H2020 project, RF-2018-12365308, PNRR-MAD-2022-12375859) and projects aimed at the identification of central and peripheral mechanisms modulated by stress early in life and associated with the onset of mood disorders in adolescence or in adulthood (EarlyCause H2020, IDEA-FLAME projects).She has more than 100 publications in PubMed, leading to SCOPUS H-Index=46, and more than 6700 citations.Dr Cattaneo received several Awards including the Dirk Hellhammer Award as distinguished international investigators in the field of psychoneuroendocrinology in 2021, the British Psychopharmacology Association Award in July 2017, the Award for Young Investigator Scientist at the ECNP Conference in 2015 and the Rafaelsen Young Investigator’s Award in 2014. She is currently supervising several undergraduate students and PhD students. She is Member of the CINP Awards Scientific Committee Member; Member of the Scientific Advisory Board Panel, European College of Neuropsychopharmacology; Member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Swiss Consortium on the Gut Microbiota and Alzheimer’s disease, University of Geneva, Switzerland. She has also been Review panel member for ERC grants.