Dr Tertia Purves-Tyson, PhD

Dr Tertia Purves-Tyson is a Senior Research Scientist and head of the Preclinical Neuropsychiatry Laboratory at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), and a Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on understanding the underlying neurobiology of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. She investigates the interaction between hormones and neuroinflammation and their role(s) in modulating neurotransmitter systems utilising the rodent maternal immune activation (MIA) model of dopamine dysregulation, with a particular interest in the intersection of age- and sex-specific neurobiological differences contributing to behavioural changes relevant to these disorders. A focus is to understand the molecular underpinnings of sex differences in response to selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMS) such as raloxifene, and to enable the translation of this knowledge to sex-specific/targeted clinical testing for the different symptom domains of Schizophrenia. Tertia is on the Steering Committee and co-chairs the Preclinical Working Group of the Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Medicine and Health (CSGEMH, Australia) and is recent past President of the Biological Psychiatry Australia society (2022 - 2025).