Liisa Galea

Dr. Liisa Galea is a Professor (Status Only) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), affiliated with the University of Toronto's Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology & Toxicology. She holds the Treliving Family Chair in Women's Mental Health and leads the Women's Health Research Cluster at CAMH. Dr. Galea earned her PhD in Neuroscience from Western University and completed postdoctoral training at The Rockefeller University.

Her research investigates neuroendocrinology, sex differences in brain health, and women's mental health, focusing on hormone-brain interactions, Alzheimer's disease mechanisms, and cognitive aging. She advocates for sex/gender-based analyses in neuroscience to address health disparities.

Recent publications (2021-2025) demonstrate strong themes in hormonal regulation of cognition, neuroplasticity across lifespans, sex-specific disease risks, and translational approaches to women's mental health. Her work integrates neuroendocrinology, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical psychiatry.

Awards & Leadership:

• Treliving Family Chair in Women's Mental Health
• NSERC Discovery Accelerator Award (2×)
• Mortyn Jones Prize
• President, Organization for the Study of Sex Differences
• Principal Editor, Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology

She leads the Galea Lab at CAMH, mentoring trainees and securing funding from CIHR, NSERC, Alzheimer's Society of Canada, Brain Canada, and private foundations. Current projects examine how sex hormones and life experiences (e.g., motherhood) influence brain health and disease vulnerability.