Amy Bilderbeck

My research is eclectic, covering cognitive and behavioural testing, MRI, remote monitoring and big data, and qualitative research. Rather than specializing in a given area, what excites me is to drive collaborations, and thereby be part of the teams that represent interdisciplinary (and often widely international) innovations in research science. As an extension of this I've become increasingly interested in the synergies that are possible between the private and public sectors, and also in pre-competitive industry consortia; these projects can result in uniquely exciting possibilities for the development of treatments and interventions for mental health issues.

I completed my DPhil in Experimental Psychology at the Department of Psychiatry and worked as a post doc there for 5 years (2011-2016), on a number of projects which broadly focused on mood instability. In 2016 I moved to work at P1vital Ltd, an enterprise with close connections to the Department of Psychiatry, and where I manage a small scientific team. My current work involves the leveraging of 'experimental medicine' approaches in the development of new pharmaceutical compounds for a range of psychiatric disorders, and biomarker development, for example in the PRISM project. I am also part of the team testing a novel smartphone application to improve treatments for depression, in the PReDicT project. The clinical areas I have conducted research in include depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and more recently schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. 

My connections to the Department of Psychiatry continue to be an important source of inspiration and intellectual nourishment. Many of my most exciting projects have been fostered by the Department and its members.