Igor Branchi

EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2020 - present             Senior Researcher and Group Leader, Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

1.2.2025 - 5.4.2025 Visiting fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies and at the Center for Urban Mental Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2021 – 2023                President of the European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS)

2018 – 2023 Visiting Professor of Ethology at Sapienza, University of Rome, Italy

1.2.2013 - 31.1.2014   Experienced Researcher Marie Slodowska Curie fellow and visiting scientist at the Institute of Anatomy, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

2002 - 2019                Researcher at the Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

2001 - 2002                Post-doc at Department of Physiology and Pharmacology Vittorio Erspamer, Sapienza University of Rome.

26.6.2001                   Ph.D. Degree (très honorable avec felicitations du jury) in Neuroscience and Behaviour at the University of Orléans, France

2001 - 2002                Research associate, iBehavioural Pathophysiology Section, Lab. Fisiopatologia Organo e Sistema, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

1998 - 2000                Scientific guest at the Laboratory Génétique, Neurogénétique, Comportement, Institut de Trangénose, CNRS, Orléans, France

19.2.1996                   Laurea degree (summa cum laude) in Biological Sciences (Psychobiology) University "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy

1992 - 1998                Scientific guest, Behavioural Pathophysiology Section, Lab. Fisiopatologia Organo e Sistema, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

HONORS AND FELLOWSHIPS (Selection)

-     Visiting Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies (UNiversity of Amsterdam), 2025 (2 months)

-        Marie Curie fellowship for Experienced Researcher (University of Zurich), 2011 (1 year)

-        Telethon fellowship for Genetic Disease Research, 2000 (1 year)

-        University of Rome “La Sapienza” fellowship for biomedical sciences, 2001 (1 year)

-        University of Rome “La Sapienza” fellowship for biological sciences, 2001

-        Italian CNR fellowships for biological research, 1999 (1 year)

-        University of Rome “La Sapienza” fellowship for top ranking students, 1994-1995 (2 years)

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEES (Selection)

-  Organizer, International School Ettore Majorana, Recentering neuroscience on behavior: a brain-body-environment integrated approach (Erice, Sicily, Italy, 9-14 November 2024)

-  Member, Programme Committee, #Resilience2024 (Mainz, Germany, 25-27 September 2024)

-  Member, Governing Council of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), 2021-2023

-  Member, Executive Committee of the European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS), 2020-2024

-  Member, Scientific Advisory Board of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), 2020-present

-  Member, Workshop Committee of the ECNP, 2024-2027

-  Member, ECNP Network Resilience, 2020-present

-  Member, ECNP Network Anxiety disorders, 2019-present

-  Member of the ECNP Network ImmunoNeuroPsychiatry, 2019-present

-  Member of the ECNP Network Preclinical data forum, 2017-2022

-  Member of the Executive Committee of EBBS 2011-2015, 2020

-  Member, Programme Committee, EBBS - European Brain and Behaviour Society meeting (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 26-29 August 2023)

-  Member, Programme Committee, EBBS - European Brain and Behaviour Society meeting (Lausanne, Switzerland, 4-7 September 2021)

-  Member, Scientific Committee of EBBS-EBPS (European Brain Pharmacology Society) joint meeting
(12-15 September 2015, Verona, Italy)

-  Member, Programme Committee, EBBS/EWCBR interdisciplinary conference (Brides-les-Bains, France, 15-22 March 2014)

-  Member, Programme Committee, EBBS - European Brain and Behaviour Society meeting (Munich, Germany, 6-9 September 2013)

-  Member, Programme Committee, IBANGS - International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society meeting (Boulder, Colorado, USA, 15-19 May 2012)

-  Local organizer, IBANGS - International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society meeting (Rome, Italy, 10-14 May 2011)

-      Member, Programme Committee, IBNS - International Behavioral Neuroscience Society meeting (Villasimius, CA, Italy, 10-13 June 2010)

EDITORIAL POSITIONS, BOARDS, AND PEER-REVIEW SERVICE

- Academic Editor, PLoS One (since 2014)

- Guest Editor, 2011, Psychoneuroendocrinology, In search of the biological basis of mood disorders

- Guest Editor, 2024, European Journal of Neuroscience, The relevance of a philosophical toolkit to advance neuroscience

- Review Editor for Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

- Expert Reviewer for the following international funding agencies (selection): European commission; NOW, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, The Netherlands; Swiss-Polish Research Programme; Irish Health Research Board; Agence Nationale de la Recherche, France; European project RBUCE-UP, UniverSud Paris, France; Central Finance and Contracting Agency, Latvia; National Science Center, Poland; Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, Italy; Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding; Romania; FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal

- Referee for scientific journals, including Molecular Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, and many others

FUND RAISING

-- Principal investigator - EnviroMood – Neurobiological mechanisms of the environment-plasticity-behavior interaction. Granting agency: ERANET Neuron – 2024-2027 - Coordinator: C. Normann, University of Fribourg, Germany

 -- Coordinator – Immune4Plasticity – Adjusting immune activation to reinstate neural plasticity and promote the beneficial effect of non-pharmacological interventions. Granting agency: Italian Ministry of Health – 2023-2025

-- Coordinator - Tuneimmune - Tuning the immune system activation to enhance neural plasticity: towards an improved treatment strategy for major depressive disorder. Granting agency: Istituto Superior di Sanità– 2021-2323

-- Principal investigator - The tubulin code: a lifetime controller for axonal transport-CodeAx. Granting agency: Agence Nationale de la Recherche - 2020-2023 - Coordinator: C. Janke, Institute Curie, France

-- Coordinator - Inflammatory control of antidepressant efficacy: a pharmaco-epigenetic approach. Granting agency: Italian Ministry of Health - Ricerca finalizzata – 2019-2022

-- Principal investigator - ADORe – Targeting adolescent neurocognitive processes in depression to promote intervention response. Granting agency: ERANET Neuron – 2019-2022 - Coordinator: J.L Martinot, INSERM, France

- -Coordinator - MicroSynDep – Microglial control of synaptic function in stress response and vulnerability to depression. Granting agency: ERANET Neuron – 2018-2022

-- Coordinator - Strategies in potentiating antidepressant efficacy. Granting agency: Italian Ministry of Health - Ricerca finalizzata – 2014-2018

-- Principal investigator - ISOBIOTOX – Molecular markers for measure the effects of Antarctica pollution in the brain. Granting agency: National Research Programme for Antartica (PRNA) – 2014-2015 - Coordinator: L. Rossi, Sapienza University Rome, Italy

LESSONS OR INVITED ORAL PRESENTATIONS (Selection among over 120)

1.        Interplay between environment, plasticity and depression, at: Imperial College London (London, 5 December 2023)

2.        Interplay between environment, plasticity and depression, meeting: DGPPN- German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (Berlin, 27-30 November 2023)

3.        Breaking free from the inflammatory trap of depression: regulating the interplay between immune activation and plasticity to foster mental health, webinar: Pixilab, ECNP (6 November 2023)

4.        Translational approaches in immunopsychiatry, meeting: Immunopsychiatry Summer School (Bordeaux, 17- 19 July 2023)

5.        Identifying the determinants of brain and behavior in the light of complexity, meeting: School of Ideas (Warsaw, 28  June- 5 July 2023)

6.        Interplay between environment, plasticity and depression, meeting: European Psychiatry Association (Paris, 25-28 March 2023)

7.        Resilience, neuroplasticity and the environment, meeting: World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (virtual, 28-30 Sept 2021)

8.  A multidimensional perspective of resilience to reduce vulnerability and enhance treatment efficacy in psychiatry, meeting: European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress (virtual, 12-15 Sept 2020)

9.        Relevance of the context in determining the efficacy of psychopharmacological treatments, meeting: Società Italiana di Psicopatologia (Rome, Italy, 19-22 Feb 2020)

10. Increase of plasticity by antidepressants: a drug by environment interaction meeting: DGPPN - German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (Berlin, Germany, 27-30 Nov 2019)

11. Interplay between inflammation and neuroplasticity in promoting antidepressant treatment meeting: ECNP- European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress (Copenhagen, Denmark, 7-10 Sept 2019)

12. Drug by environment interaction in antidepressant treatment: SSRIs amplify the influence of the living conditions on mood and organizer of the symposium: Thinking mental health outside of the brain box: the interplay between mind, body and environment, meeting: ECNP- European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress (Barcelona, Spain, 6-9 Oct 2018)

13. Beneficial and adverse consequences of increased neural plasticity: the interplay among serotonin, brain function and the environment at Sapienza University Rome (Rome, Italy, 16 Feb 2018)

14. Environment and brain plasticity: living conditions drive the effects of antidepressant drugs and organizer of the symposium: Exploring the bases of physiological and pathological behaviour: thinking out of the brain box, meeting: EBBS-European Brain Behaviour Society meeting (Bilbao, Spain, 8-11 Sept 2017)

15. Serotonin, brain plasticity and the environment: SSRIs amplify the influence of the living conditions on mood at Imperial College London (London, UK, 4 July 2017)

16. Stress response is context-dependent: the role of early experiences in shaping the adult reactivity to the environment at University of Bern (Bern, Switzerland, 11 May 2017)

17. Serotonin, brain plasticity and the environment: living conditions drive the outcome of antidepressant drugs at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands, 7 November 2016)

18. SSRI treatment outcome is driven by the quality of the living environment and organizer of the symposium: Improving antidepressant treatment outcome: mechanisms, moderators and innovative therapeutic strategies, meeting: ECNP-European College of Neuropsychopharmacology meeting (Vienna, Austria, 17-20 September 2016)

19. Immunopsychiatry meetings - Beneficial and adverse consequences of increased neural plasticity: the interplay between antidepressants and the quality of the environment at King’s College London (London, UK, 25 May 2016)

20. The interplay among serotonin, brain function and the environment at Institute Fer a Moulin - Institute Marie Curie (Paris, France, 18 June 2015)

21. Beneficial and adverse consequences of increased brain plasticity: the interplay among serotonin, susceptibility to the environment and depression and organizer of the symposium: Identifying biomarkers of depression: New views on serotonin in brain function and psychiatric disorders, meeting: European Psychiatry Association meeting (Vienna, Austria, 28-31 March 2015)

22. Complex approach to the study of behaviour at University of Rome Sapienza Rome, Italy, 24 March 2015)

23. Beneficial and adverse consequences of Increased brain plasticity: The interplay among serotonin, susceptibility to the environment and mental health at University of Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland, 18 November 2013)

24. Antidepressant treatment during stress: the adverse consequences of increased brain plasticity meeting International Society of PsychoNeuroEndocrinology (Leiden, The Netherlands, 21 August 2013)

25. Innovative perspectives and phenotyping strategies in the study of behavior and brain function in mice at University of Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland, 1 October 2012)

26. Complexity of the nest environment: investigating the early determinants of mouse social behaviour at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 November 2010)

27.     Complexity of the early social environment: mother and peer interactions independently shape adult depression-like behavior and coping response to stress in the mouse, meeting: World Congress of Stress (Leiden, The Netherlands, 26 August 2010)

28. Early environment shapes vulnerability to psychopathology in animal models of depression: is altered metabolism a reliable biomarker? and organizer of the symposium: Identifying biomarkers of depression: New insights from animal models, meeting: IX World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (Paris, France, 28 June - 2 July 2009)

29. When depression meets evolution meets animal models, meeting: A darwinian approach to emotions and mood disorders (Rome, Italy, 9 May 2008)

30. Epigenetic control of brain plasticity and behaviour, ENS-Blackwell Summer School 2007 Advanced Course in Neuroplasticity (Rome, Italy, 5-11 September 2007)

31. The effects of early social enrichment in mice on adult brain function and emotional behaviour at University of Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland, 22 November 2006)

32. Early social enrichment shapes social and emotional behavior and neurotrophin levels in the adult mouse brain at Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK, 5 October 2006)

33. Role of neurotrophins as transducers of early experiences on brain function and behaviour (and press conference), meeting: Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) (Wien Austria, 8-12 July 2006)

34. Neurobehavioral development in rodents: phenotyping strategies and modulating factors at National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA, 17 November 2005)

35. Ultrasonic vocalisations by rodent pups: a tool for early neurobehavioural assessment at MRC, Mammalian Genetic Unit (Harwell, Oxfordshire, UK, 11 June 2004)

36. Ultrasonic vocalisations by rodent pups: a tool for early neurobehavioural assessment at Department of Animal Physiology, University of Groningen (Groningen, The Netherlands, 5 March 2002)

37. Assessment of mouse behavioral development following prenatal exposure to neurotoxicants at Department of Environmental Health, University of Washington (Seattle, WA, USA, 26 April 2001)

R software and Statistics Instructor

- Teacher, Tutor and scientific advisor: School of Statistics in biomedical research and R programming (IRCCS Scientific Institute for Research and Healthcare, Rome, Italy, 2017, 2018 and 2019 editions)

POPULARIZATION ACTIVITIES

-          Member of the Scientific Committee of the Science Festival of Genova, Italy (one of the largest events aimed at popularizing science in Europe) 2013-2015

-          Author of articles in the lay press. Collaboration with the following newspapers Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, La Stampa, L’Unità, L’indice dei libri del mese

-          Author of bibliographic entries for Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, Dizionario di Biologia, Utet

-          Participation to seminars aimed at popularizing scientific data for the general public as Caffé Scienza (Forma Scienza, 2014. 2024), seminars at central Rome train station Termini (2011).

-          Collaboration with TV shows aimed at popularizing science: Geo & Geo, Tg2 medicina 33, public Italian channel Rai 2 e Rai 3

SUPERVISING AND MENTORING ACTIVITIES

- Tutor of 30 Italian Laurea (i.e. Bachelor/Master degree) students during their experimental work and thesis

- 6 PhD students in Italy during their experimental work and thesis

- 4 PhD Thesis committee in Italy

- 2 Early career researcher

- 4 international PhD thesis advisory committees: Université de Lyon, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich, University of Zurich