Career Development Institute for Psychiatry
Dedicated to Launching and Maintaining Careers in Mental Health Research

Aoife O'Donovan, PhD

Dr. O’Donovan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (DPBS) at the University of California, San Francisco, Research Psychologist at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, and Director of the UCSF Trauma and Health Research on Immunity, Vitality, and Emotions (THRIVE) Laboratory. Her work focuses on uncovering mechanisms of stress-related ill health with a particular focus on inflammation as a mechanism of both mental and physical disorders following stress exposure. In prior work, she has demonstrated strong links of psychiatric disorders with risk for major chronic medical diseases; elevated inflammatory activity in association with psychiatric disorders and suicide ideation; links between elevated inflammation and alterations in brain structure, as well as accelerated biological aging in association with psychiatric disorders and psychological factors. Funded by the Department of Defense, the National Institute on Mental Health, and the UCSF Resource Allocation Program, she is currently running experimental studies to examine the impact of inflammation on the brain and psychiatric symptoms, randomized controlled trials of cognitive training and pharmacological interventions for PTSD, and studied focused on uncovering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in people with and without PTSD.

Positions

  • Associate Professor In Residence, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF
  • Research Psychologist, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Healthcare System

Education & Training

  • BA, University College Cork, Ireland
  • MPsychSc, National University of Ireland, Galway
  • PhD, University College Dublin, Ireland