Methodological development and translational research

Precision Psychiatry

Developing biologically informed approaches for the prediction, prevention, and personalized treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Integrative Neuroscience

Understanding mental health and psychopathology across biological scales, from genes and molecular pathways to brain systems, cognition, and behavior.

Translational Psychiatry

Bridging research findings to clinically actionable biomarkers and innovative interventions.

• Advancing precision medicine for ADHD and neuropsychiatric disorders through wearable brain imaging
• ADHD data-driven assessment for phenotyping and treatment prediction (ADAPT)
• Neuroscience of the thrill: elucidating the psychobiology of risk-taking behavior in extreme sports and differential profiling with ADHD
• Enhancing clinical insights into adolescent suicidality using machine learning and multimodal data
• Risk and protective factors for psychopathology and suicidality in adolescent crisis intervention settings
• TDM-VIGIL: Therapeutic drug monitoring (pharmacovigilance) in child and adolescent psychiatry
• Biomarkers of response to omega-3 fatty acids in depressive disorders
• Brain imaging biomarkers of psychosis vulnerability and schizotypy (ENIGMA Consortium)
• Mechanistic and clinical research on non-invasive neuromodulation (TMS and tDCS)
• Evidence synthesis and comparative effectiveness research in psychiatry

Lukasz Smigielski, PhD, is a senior researcher in psychiatry and neuroscience whose work bridges basic and clinical research. He earned his PhD from the University of Zurich and completed the International PhD Program in Neuroscience at the Zurich Neuroscience Center (University of Zurich and ETH Zurich). Following doctoral training in brain imaging and psychopharmacology, he held postdoctoral research positions at EPFL Lausanne (Campus Biotech Geneva) and the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, focusing on neuroimaging, computational methods, biostatistics, and molecular psychiatry.
He currently leads methodological development and translational research within the Applied Clinical Research Group at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich.
His work investigates the biological mechanisms underlying mental health and psychiatric disorders across development, particularly psychotic disorders, ADHD, and OCD, by integrating molecular psychiatry, psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, computational approaches, and clinical research.

• Line Clemmensen, Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Roger Gassert, Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
• Edna Grünblatt, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Switzerland
• Philipp Homan, Department of Adult Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Switzerland
• Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, USA

• Rabe F, Smigielski L, et al. Genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia through neuroinflammatory pathways associated with retinal thinness. Nature Mental Health (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44220-025-00414-6.
• Boudriot E, Stephan M, Rabe F, Smigielski L, et al. Genetic Analysis of Retinal Cell Types in Neuropsychiatric Disorders. JAMA Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4230.
• Frey M, Smigielski L, et al. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in Children and Adolescents: Findings on Fluoxetine from the TDM-VIGIL Trial. Pharmaceutics (2023). DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15092202.
• Smigielski L, Stämpfli P, Wotruba D, et al. White matter microstructure and the clinical risk for psychosis. NeuroImage: Clinical (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103067.
• Smigielski L, Papiol S, et al. Polygenic risk scores across the extended psychosis spectrum. Translational Psychiatry (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41398-021-01720-0.
• Smigielski L, Wotruba D, Treyer V, et al. The Interplay Between Postsynaptic Striatal D2/3 Receptor Availability, Adversity Exposure and Odd Beliefs. Schizophrenia Bulletin (2021). DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbab034.
• Smigielski L, Jagannath V, Rössler W, et al. Epigenetic mechanisms in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders: a systematic review of empirical human findings. Molecular Psychiatry (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-019-0601-3.