Alexander Behnke studied psychology with a minor in industrial engineering at the TU Dresden (2008–2015) as well as Italian at Ca’Foscari Università Venezia (Italy, 2014–2015). He was awarded a university studies scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation, 2009–2015). Since 2010, he worked as a student research associate at the Personality & Individual Differences Dept. (Prof. Alexander Strobel), TU Dresden, and completed a research internship at the Institute for Work and Health (IAG) of the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV, 2012–2013).

From 2015, Alexander Behnke was a research associate at the Personality & Individual Differences Dept. (Prof. Alexander Strobel), TU Dresden, and since 2016 he worked as a doctoral research fellow at the Clinical & Biological Psychology Dept. (Prof. Iris-Tatjana Kolassa) of Ulm University. Supported by a PhD scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, he dedicated his PhD studies to the occupational traumatization of Emergency Medical Services personnel. In May 2021, Alexander Behnke received his doctorate (summa cum laude) and his thesis was distinguished with the Dissertation Award of the Clemens Gabriel Foundation.

Dr. Behnke’s current projects investigate the impact of traumatic stress on immune cell metabolism and activity and the role of immunometabolic and humoral alterations in the etiology of psychiatric disorders. He has received seed funding and is PI of an interdisciplinary Early Career Incubator project on the crosstalk of endocrine stress signaling and immunometabolism in major depressive disorder using an ex vivo stress model. In 2024, Dr. Behnke will be a visiting postdoctoral fellow in the Mitochondrial Psychobiology Laboratory of Martin Picard at Columbia University, New York, to investigate cell-free circulating mitochondrial DNA as an innovative humoral biomarker of stress in the etiology of psychiatric disorders. The stay at Columbia University is supported by fellowships from the U.S. Fulbright Commission and the G.A.-Lienert Foundation.