Carolina de Weerth - Biography#

Carolina de Weerth obtained a master in biology (animal behavior, Utrecht University) and a PhD in developmental psychology (University of Groningen) on patterns and variability of emotion-related behavior in infants. During her postdoc position at the department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Utrecht University Medical Center), de Weerth initiated her fruitful line of research on psychological prenatal and postnatal stress in community women and their children. After obtaining an important personal Vidi grant, de Weerth was offered a permanent position at the department of Developmental Psychology of Radboud University where she worked for 15 years and became full professor. During these years, de Weerth set up her Developmental Psychobiology Lab, a unique interdisciplinary research group with members of diverse backgrounds, e.g., biology, psychology, pedagogics, nutrition, medicine. In 2018, after being awarded a prestigious personal Vici grant, de Weerth became full professor, PI and group leader at the Radboudumc and Donders Institute. De Weerth carries out innovative research focusing on uncovering how early environmental factors influence development, partly determining children’s further life trajectories. She specifically studies relations between prenatal and postnatal maternal stress and anxiety, as well as caregiving choices and quality, on children’s development, including physical health and behavioral regulation. De Weerth includes relevant physiological systems and biomarkers to uncover the mechanisms underlying these relations (e.g., the intestinal microbiota, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, maternal milk, telomeres).

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Twitter: @WeerthDe