Giulio Pergola Named the 2025 Research Excellence Awardee
Dr. Giulio Pergola is an Investigator at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development (LIBD) in Baltimore, MD, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and an Associate Professor of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Bari Aldo Moro (UNIBA), Italy.
Dr. Pergola trained as a biologist in Bari, specializing in Morphometry and Evolutionary Anthropology, before earning a PhD in Neuroscience from the Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany) within a Marie Curie Early-Stage Training network. His expertise in Cognitive Neuroscience was further honed at SISSA (Trieste, Italy), followed by an Assistant Professorship in Psychiatry at UNIBA. A second Marie Curie fellowship brought him to the LIBD, paving the way for his tenure at UNIBA (2021) and faculty appointment at the LIBD (2022).
His research bridges genetics, cellular models, neuroimaging, and behavioral profiling to map the biological underpinnings of schizophrenia. Key contributions include demonstrating how schizophrenia-associated genes converge onto co-expression networks that predict brain function and treatment response, as well as uncovering the molecular basis of heritable neuroimaging phenotypes characterizing schizophrenia. His work has also advanced the understanding of gene-environment interactions during adolescence, providing insights into how genetic predisposition may shape vulnerability to psychosis.
Dr. Pergola’s labs in Baltimore and Bari now focus on translating these molecular and genetic insights into clinically actionable strategies. Current work aims to define biologically grounded patient stratification to refine diagnosis and personalize treatment. Dr. Pergola seeks to identify molecular pathways that drive patient heterogeneity in symptomatology and treatment response. His ongoing work combines genetics with transcriptomics, network science, cellular models, neuroimaging, and behavioral characterization to establish predictive markers that can inform targeted therapeutic interventions, ultimately advancing precision psychiatry for schizophrenia.
