معرفی
Suzanne King is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, affiliated with the Douglas Mental Health Institute. Her research focuses on developmental psychopathology and the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD), particularly the long-term effects of prenatal maternal stress exposure during natural disasters on child development. She leads three major longitudinal studies: the Quebec Ice Storm (1998), Iowa Flood (2008), and Queensland Flood (2011) cohorts.
Her work examines cognitive, physical, behavioral, and motor development outcomes in children exposed to prenatal stress, including neuroimaging, epigenetic, and metabolomic analyses. Key areas include autism spectrum traits, psychopathology risk, HPA-axis regulation, and brain structure-function relationships. King also investigates interventions to mitigate maternal stress during disasters and pandemic impacts on maternal mental health and birth outcomes.
Her research integrates multidisciplinary approaches across psychiatry, epidemiology, and developmental biology. Major findings include associations between prenatal stress and altered brain connectivity, cortisol dysregulation, and metabolic biomarkers linked to lifelong health risks.
