• Pathomechanisms of stress/trauma-associated disorders such as major depression and PTSD
• Endocrine stress signaling, inflammatory activity, and cellular energy production in stress and mental health
• Occupational traumatization in first responders

• CZS NEXUS Independent Research Group Immunometabolism and Mental Health
• Early Career Incubator “Crosstalk of endocrine stress signaling and immunometabolism in major depressive disorder using an ex vivo stress model” (Co-PIs Dr. Matthias Mack, Prof. Maja Vujić Spasić)
• Cellular energy production and alterations in gene expression patterns of peripheral immune cells in PTSD across trauma-exposed therapy (ENHANCE)
• Pathomechanisms in major depression: Relevance for disorder severity, therapy response, and remission stability
• Inflammatory, endocrine, and cell-metabolic alterations in major depressive disorder
• Immunometabolic changes in PTSD across trauma-exposed therapy
• Occupational traumatization in the Emergency Medical Services
• Mitochondrial bioenergetics in chronic fatigue after COVID-19

2025-31	Carl-Zeiss-Foundation NEXUS Independent Research Group “Machine learning-based personalized inflammation phenotyping and molecular mechanisms of treatment resistance in major depression” (€1,499,000; PI: A. Behnke)
2024	Fulbright Visiting Scholar Fellowship (U.S. Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board) to visit Martin Picard’s Mitochondrial Psychobiology Laboratory, Columbia University, New York City
2024	G.A.-Lienert Foundation Research Fellowship (German Biopsychological Society) to visit Martin Picard’s Mitochondrial Psychobiology Laboratory, Columbia University, New York City
2023-24	Early Career Incubator Funding (Ulm University Graduate & Professional Training Centre ProTrainU, €87,945) to investigate the crosstalk of endocrine stress signaling and immunometabolism in major depressive disorder using an ex vivo stress model (PI: A. Behnke; Co-PIs: M. Mack, M. Vujić Spasić)
2023-24	Start-up Funding (Ulm University Graduate & Professional Training Centre ProTrainU, €36,000) to investigate the transcriptomic regulation of the immune cell metabolism in PTSD and its relevance for psychotherapy response using RNA-seq
2022	Start-up Funding (Ulm University Graduate & Professional Training Centre ProTrainU, €10,000) to investigate mitochondrial bioenergetics in PTSD and its association with psychotherapy response
2022	Clemens Gabriel Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Award (€1,000)
2020	German Society for Psychotraumatology (DeGPT) Annual Meeting Travel Award
2017–2020	PhD scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation)
2009–2015	University studies scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation)

Find me on Google Scholar

• Open Science Framework (OSF)
• ORCID
• Researchgate

Winter 24/25	Personality traits and personality disorders (M.Sc. Psychotherapy) Statistics applied to master theses in psychology (M.Sc. Psychology, M.Sc. Psychotherapy)
Winter 23/24	Etiology and therapy of traumatic stress-related mental disorders (B.Sc. Psychology)
Summer 2023	Lifetime consequences of chronic and traumatic stress (B.Sc. Psychology)
Aug-Sept 2022	Psychology meets systems biology: How stress and trauma influence body and mind (Kolassa, I.-T., Behnke, A., & von Bergen, M., Graduate and post-graduate course at the summer school of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, St. Johann im Ahrntal, Südtirol, Italy)
Winter 22/23	Etiology and therapy of traumatic stress-related mental disorders (B.Sc. Psychology)
Summer 2022	Traumatic stress and coping in the Emergency Medical Services and fire brigades (Research project seminar, M.Sc. Psychology)
Winter 21/22	Lifetime consequences of chronic and traumatic stress (B.Sc. Psychology)
Summer 2021	Biomolecular clinical psychology (B.Sc. Psychology)

• Invited panel member Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meeting “Mitochondrial Psychobiology” (Banbury Center, Lloyd Harbor, New York, Dec 10–13, 2024)
• Invited panel member Ernst Strüngmann Forum „Metabolic Neuropsychiatry“ (Frankfurt/Main, May 12–17, 2024)
• Assistant reviewer for Biological Psychology posters for the 2021 APS Virtual Convention (2021, May 26–27).
• Assistant reviewer for Biological Psychology posters for the 32nd APS Annual Convention (2020, May 21–24, cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Chicago, IL, USA.
• Chair of the symposium “Intervention approaches and risk factors among members of the armed forces, combatants and emergency service personnel” at the 22. German Society for Psychotraumatology (DeGPT) Annual Meeting (2020, February 13–15), Berlin, Germany.
• Ad-hoc reviewer: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity; Psychological Medicine; Psychoneuroendocrinology; Journal of Psychiatric Research; Cognitive Therapy and Research; Mental Health and Prevention; BMC Psychiatry