Timothy Powell

Dr. Timothy Powell is a Senior Lecturer in Translational Genetics & Neuroscience and Deputy Head of Department at the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre within King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. He leads the Psychiatric Biogerontology & Translational Medicine Group where he supervises MSc students, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.

Dr. Powell joined King's College London in 2009 as a 1+3 MSc/PhD student after completing his undergraduate degree in Human Sciences at University College London. He graduated with a PhD from the SGDP Centre in 2014, where he was awarded the Gottesman-Shields PhD Prize. In 2016, after postdoctoral training, he received a Medical Research Council Skills Development Fellowship.

His research combines wet-lab experimental methods with population genetic approaches to investigate biological mechanisms mediating risk for psychiatric disorders such as major depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. His work focuses on telomere shortening, inflammation, neurogenesis, and human endogenous retroviral expression as key biological pathways. Recent publications reveal groundbreaking connections between ancient viral DNA in the human genome and psychiatric disorders, as well as important insights into telomere biology and aging in mental health contexts.

Dr. Powell's extensive publication record demonstrates a strong trajectory in psychiatric genetics with increasing focus on the role of human endogenous retroviruses and telomere biology in mental health disorders. His work bridges molecular mechanisms with clinical implications, particularly in drug repositioning strategies for depression and understanding biological aging in psychiatric conditions.

• Gottesman-Shields PhD Prize
• Medical Research Council Skills Development Fellowship

Dr. Powell actively mentors students at various levels and has received significant research funding including an MRC New Investigator award and NIH funding for his work on genetic risk of HIV acquisition. His research group employs multidisciplinary approaches including telomere quantification, inflammatory cytokine analysis, cellular models, and RNA sequencing. He also engages in public outreach through events like Pint of Science and BBC Radio 4 discussions on stem cells and drug repositioning for depression.