Aoife O'Donovan, PhD

Aoife O'Donovan, PhD is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a research psychologist at the San Francisco VA Health Care System (SFVAHCS). She completed an undergraduate degree in psychology at University College Cork, a master's degree in health psychology at the University of Galway, PhD training in clinical psychobiology at University College Dublin and UCSF, and postdoctoral fellowships in stress and PTSD research at UCSF and the SFVAHCS.

People who experience traumatic or enduring psychological stress are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders as well as cardiovascular, autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. O'Donovan's research is focused on revealing how psychological stress drives the development of mental and physical disorders. Specifically, her team aims to identify the psychological and biological factors that account for the adverse effects of psychological stress, and ultimately to drive the development of targeted interventions to reduce such negative effects of stress. To this end, her projects focus on uncovering stress-related changes in biological systems and on examining how such changes impact brain function and structure as well as specific disease outcomes. As part of the leadership team at the UCSF Translational Psychiatry Research Program, Dr. O'Donovan examines the effects of psychedelic therapy on blood-based biomarkers of immune and metabolic functioning.