DIANA PRATA is a Principal Researcher at the Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (UL) since 2018, where she founded the Biomedical Neuroscience laboratory after 12 years at King's College London, and three years at iMM Lisboa. She is also a Visiting Associate Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King’s College London (KCL) and a member of ISCTE-IUL and FCT NOVA. Internationally recognized for her pioneering work combining genetics and neuroimaging during her PhD, her work has since expanded to include randomized placebo-controlled drug studies of oxytocin and dopaminergic drugs in humans using neuroimaging, electroencephalography, eye-tracking, pupillometry, skin conductance response, electrocardiography, proteomics and epigenetics. Her main research goal is understanding the biology of human social behaviour, e.g. what makes us understand, trust and befriend others, and create cooperative relationships – and help demonstrate how these mechanisms are to mental health and well-being. Her recent studies have looked at oxytocin and dopamine’s role in empathy, trust, cooperation, reward learning, salience attribution, and social dance-mediated bonding, including in the context of psychopathy, psychosis and autism. Using artificial intelligence, her team also develops software to aid the diagnosis of neurological and psychiatric diseases, which lead to the foundation of a startup. In addition to several university prizes and distinctions (from KCL, ISCTE and the University of Lisbon), she was honoured with the "Most Promising Scientist" award from the Marie Curie Actions 3rd Prize (2017) by the European Commission and has been sponsored with several prestigious grants and research contracts totalling over €2 million. Recently, she was ranked top 1st nation-wide in Psychology in the state-sponsored CEEC-IND competition by the government’s FCT foundation. She is the author of more than 70 articles and book chapters; and supervises a highly diverse and international team with backgrounds in biomedical engineering, biology, medicine, data science, psychology and anthropology – where there is a strong focus on team-work and a socially healthy environment.

O nosso interesse reside na compreensão das bases biológicas do comportamento humano, em particular a social, que buscamos traduzir em aprimoramentos nos modelos etiológicos e terapêuticos de transtornos neuropsiquiátricos e no bem-estar humano. Dedicamo-nos a: 1) compreender o papel da ocitocina na cognição social e sua relevância para psicose, psicopatia e autismo, sintomas sociais e uma vida social saudável; e 2) desenvolver biomarcadores clinicamente úteis para auxiliar no diagnóstico clínico e no prognóstico de doenças psiquiátricas e neurológicas. Para isso, combinamos experimentação psicológica e neurofarmacológica com ferramentas de (epi)genética, neuroimagem e psicofisiologia – o que é possível graças a uma equipe diversificada de engenheiros biomédicos, psicólogos, biólogos, farmacêuticos, antropólogos, médicos e psiquiatras. A missão do nosso laboratório é: 1) utilizar a neurociência para destacar a importância da dimensão social de nossas vidas para o nosso bem-estar pessoal e social, e para aprimorá-la na saúde e na doença; e 2) alcançar isso em um ambiente de laboratório empático, criativo, centrado no trabalho em equipe e socialmente saudável. Para mais informações ou para se envolver, aceda: https://dpratalab.wordpress.com/

Our interest is understanding the biological basis of human behaviour, in particular the social one, which we aim to translate into improving etiological and therapeutic models of neuropsychiatric disorders and human well-being. We are dedicated to: 1) understanding the role of oxytocin in social cognition, and its relevance to psychosis, psychopathy and autism, social symptoms and a healthy social life; and 2) building clinically useful biomarkers for aiding clinical diagnostic and prognostic predictions in psychiatric and neurological illnesses. For this, we combine psychological and neuropharmacological experimentation with (epi)genetics, neuroimaging and psychophysiological tools – which is made possible by a diverse team of biomedical engineers, psychologists, biologists, pharmacists, anthropologists, medics and psychiatrists. Our lab’s mission is to: 1) using neuroscience, highlight the importance of the social dimension of our lives to our personal and societal well-being, and to enhance it in health and disease; and 2) to achieve this in an empathic, creative, team-work centered, and socially healthy lab environment. For more info, or to get involved, see: https://dpratalab.wordpress.com/

2022-01-01 - Achievement Award (Associação de Investigadores e Estudantes Portugueses no Reino Unido | Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia)

2020-01-01 - Menções honrosas dos Prémios Científicos Universidade de Lisboa/Caixa Geral de Depósitos (Caixa Geral de Depósitos)

2017-01-01 - Achievement Award (European Commission)

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