Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy University Hospital Frankfurt

The group leader Jonathan Repple is Professor of Predictive Psychiatry and Chief Senior Physician at University Hospital Frankfurt. His research focuses on predicting treatment response and long-term outcomes in affective disorders using multimodal neuroimaging, blood biomarkers, and clinical characterization. He studies structural connectomics, cognitive dysfunction in psychiatric disorders, and effects of neuromodulatory treatments (ECT, TMS), aiming to optimize individualized therapy for depression.

Marius Gruber is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at University Hospital Frankfurt. His research focuses on cognitive dysfunction and neurobiological mechanisms of mental disorders, with a particular emphasis on depression. He investigates individual trajectories of depressive symptoms during treatment using connectomics, network analysis, and advanced MRI methods to better understand brain–behavior relationships and treatment response.

Kira F. Ahrens investigates longitudinal biopsychosocial processes in mental disorders, focusing on individual trajectories of depressive symptoms, dynamic symptom networks, and brain connectomics. Her research combines clinical, cognitive, and neurobiological data to understand mechanisms underlying psychopathology and to identify predictors of treatment response.

Alicia Mohn is a Research Associate at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at University Hospital Frankfurt and the Cooperative Brain Imaging Center (CoBIC). Her work focuses on cognitive dysfunction and individual symptom networks in affective disorders. With a background in clinical psychology, she integrates research and clinical training in cognitive behavioral therapy, aiming to advance personalized approaches to understanding and treating affective disorders.

Stefanie Fischer is a Clinician Scientist and Resident at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at University Hospital Frankfurt and the LOEWE Research Center DYNAMIC. She is also a PhD candidate at the Cooperative Brain Imaging Center (CoBIC). Her research focuses on connectomics, imaging genetics, and transcriptomics, integrating neuroimaging, genetic risk scores, and gene expression data to investigate the neurobiological basis of psychiatric disorders.

Lea Krätzig is a Research Associate (PhD Student) at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at University Hospital Frankfurt and the Cooperative Brain Imaging Center (CoBIC). Her research focuses on modeling symptom networks in posttraumatic stress, affective, and anxiety disorders, including longitudinal changes during treatment. She investigates neuromodulatory interventions such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and applies statistical and network-based methods to understand symptom dynamics.

Sonja Langenstein is a Research Associate at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at University Hospital Frankfurt and the Cooperative Brain Imaging Center (CoBIC). Her research focuses on affective disorders, including individual trajectories of depressive symptoms during treatment and the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). She investigates predictors of response to antidepressant therapies to advance personalized treatment approaches for depression.

Paula Rehm is a Research Associate (PhD Student) at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at University Hospital Frankfurt and the Cooperative Brain Imaging Center (CoBIC). Her research focuses on chronic depression, including symptom network modeling across different illness trajectories and patient perspectives. She investigates neuromodulatory treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and applies network-based and mixed-methods approaches to understand depressive disorders.

Henry Staub is a Research Associate (PhD Student) at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Cooperative Brain Imaging Center (CoBIC). His research focuses on brain network dynamics in affective disorders and identifying predictors of response to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). He applies mathematical frameworks, including network control theory, to model large-scale brain dynamics and individual treatment variability.

Franka Timm is a Research Associate (PhD Student) at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Cooperative Brain Imaging Center (CoBIC). Her research focuses on conceptualizing psychiatric disorders as brain disorders and advancing predictive, personalized psychiatry. She specializes in normative modeling of brain differences using neuroimaging to identify neurobiological markers linked to cognitive and clinical outcomes, as well as modeling non-invasive brain stimulation effects.

The group is complemented by MD candidates, as well as graduate students, working on thesis projects.

PD Dr. Sharmili Edwin Thanarajah is Principal Investigator of the Neurometabolic Lab and Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Goethe University Frankfurt and heads the Metabolic Unit at the Schiffer Campus. She leads the “Neurometabolic Circuitry” group, coordinates interdisciplinary research and clinical work, supervises team members, and advances translational approaches linking metabolism and mental health.

More information about our group: https://www.neurometabolic-lab.de/

Leona Jacobsen is a Lab Manager at the Neurometabolic Lab. She oversees lab organization, coordinates workflows, and manages internal and external communication, including website content and outreach materials. She supports research projects through planning, resource management, and administrative coordination.

Her research focuses on the role of the blood-brain barrier in depression, the impact of hormonal changes during perimenopause on mental health, and associated metabolic alterations. She is a postdoctoral researcher in the Neurometabolic Lab and is funded through the DFG Clinician Scientist Program INDEEP. Since 2023, she has been a board-certified specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy, and since 2025 she serves as Acting Senior Physician at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at University Hospital Frankfurt.

Paul Forbes investigates how stress and metabolic states influence decision-making, reward processing and psychiatric symptoms. He combines neuroimaging with behavioural and metabolic assessments. His current research focuses on the neurometabolic mechanisms underlying fasting as a potential treatment for depression.

The doctoral researcher investigates metabolic dysregulation as a neurobiological mechanism of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Long COVID. The work includes an MRI/MRS intervention study with intranasal insulin and employs multimodal approaches to advance mechanistic insight into brain- metabolism interactions and inform targeted therapeutic strategies.

Aicha Bouzouina is a PhD candidate in neuropsychiatry at University Hospital Frankfurt. Her research focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms linking depression and metabolic disorders, particularly obesity and insulin resistance. Using multimodal approaches including fMRI, behavioral paradigms, and peripheral biomarkers, she investigates alterations in emotion and reward processing to better understand comorbidity and support the development of personalized treatment approaches.

Elif Ertas is a doctoral student at University Hospital Frankfurt. Her research focuses on how metabolic dysregulation induced by a Western diet and obesity influences inflammatory responses and sickness behavior following viral immune activation. Using animal models, her work combines behavioral assessments and multi-organ tissue analyses to study systemic and neuroinflammatory mechanisms.

Christina Werning has been a PhD candidate in the Neurometabolic Circuitry research group. She completed her master’s thesis in the same group, where she investigated in vitro stimulated Th17 cells in major depression. In her doctoral research, she continues to examine inflammatory mechanisms and gut-immune interactions in depression, with a particular focus on short-chain fatty acids and microbiome-targeted interventions, and their potential effects on symptomatology in an inflammatory subtype of depression.