Dr Paula Banca awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship

Dr Paula Banca has just been awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship. Paula will use this funding to study the role of glutamate and serotonin in the development of compulsions. Over the next two years, in Cambridge with Professor Trevor Robbins, Paula will develop a novel behavioural paradigm for measuring habits. She will investigate the behavioural, neural and neurochemical mechanisms through which healthy humans and patients with Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder (OCD) arbitrate between intentional and automatic actions.

In the remaining 2 years of the Fellowship, Paula will work with Professor Gitte Moos Knudsen at Copenhagen University Hospital. Leveraging a novel 5-HT4 receptor radioligand able to index extracellular serotonin levels in the human brain, Paula will study the role of serotonin in compulsivity.

By adopting a multi-modal neuroimaging approach comprising PET, MRS and fMRI, Paula aims to bring key advances in the understanding of the role of promising neurotransmitters in the transition from habits to compulsions.

Congratulations Paula!