Early Life Stress: A Translational Study of Affective and Behavioral Outcomes and Genetic Modulation

The primary objective of this project is to establish translational research on early life stress with affective, behavioral outcome as well as genetic modulation, with a strong gender perspective.

The secondary obejctives are: 1) to explore the impact of negative experiences in childhood, 2) to explore the impact of positive support as a moderator of risk to develop later anxiety and depression and 3) to identify high-probability candidate genes which may interact with early life stress making the individual more vulnerable or resilient to later stress experience. The latter point represents an innovative approach to the exploration of genetic vulnerability and resilience of early life stress.