Nastassja Koen (MBChB, PhD) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. She is Head of the Division of Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, Co-Head of the Psychiatric Genetics Group within the Brain-Behaviour Unit at UCT’s Neuroscience Institute, and Co-Director of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders.

She obtained both her medical degree (MBChB) and PhD in Psychiatry at UCT and went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in biological psychiatry. Her research focuses on the genomic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic neurobiology of trauma-related disorders, with particular emphasis on the transgenerational effects of traumatic stress and advancing psychiatric genomics in African contexts.

Her current projects include investigations into the transgenerational effects of maternal stressors and infant gene expression, the epigenetic impact of maternal psychosocial trauma exposure on infants through lncRNA-sequencing, and the relationship between childhood adversity, DNA methylation, and psychopathology symptoms in longitudinal studies of sensitive periods and chrono-epigenetics.

Dr. Koen’s contributions have been recognized with several awards, including the South African Medical Association Young Leaders Doctors’ Award (Research), the Biological Psychiatry Special Interest Group Research Career Award, and the Harry Crossley Postdoctoral Research Award. She has also been featured on the Mail & Guardian’s list of 200 Young South Africans.

Her work continues to shape international conversations on the biological and intergenerational impacts of trauma, while strengthening the visibility and representation of psychiatric genomics research in Africa.