Please behave!

How do we know who is going to behave violently? What can be done to identify, manage and prevent a potential violent incident? Such questions have exercised researchers and clinicians in medical and social sciences for decades. In this talk, I want to talk about how far research has brought us to understanding the complex and confounding social phenomenon of interpersonal violence, and outline some exciting developments in forensic psychology and artificial intelligence, led by researchers at QMUL, that may help to influence future clinical practice and policy.

Addiction and psychiatric disease places an enormous burden on society. Therefore, identification of factors that contribute to an individual's vulnerability to addiction and psychiatric disease, and how well they respond to existing treatments is highly desired. I will illustrate how behavioural genetic studies in zebrafish can be used to learn about the neural processes affecting human behaviour including psychiatric disease, addiction and cognitive decline (dementia).