In a newly published Brain Medicine interview, Dr. Sara Poletti, senior researcher at IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan, explores how childhood adversity triggers long-term vulnerability to psychiatric disorders through chronic neuroinflammation and changes in brain structure.
Dr. Poletti’s research bridges psychology and neurobiology, demonstrating how early life experiences become biologically embedded. Her work reveals that childhood trauma can reprogram the immune system, heightening lifelong risks for depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental illnesses. As the only tenure-track psychologist in psychiatry at her institute, she has led multidisciplinary studies using neuroimaging, genetic testing, and immune markers to map the biological footprint of early trauma.
Her research raises urgent questions for mental health care: Can trauma-related biological markers be identified early enough to prevent psychiatric conditions? What protective factors guard against neuroinflammatory responses? How does the timing of trauma influence biological outcomes? These questions fuel her ongoing investigations.
Dr. Poletti’s path into neuroscience began with a childhood fascination with microscopes and evolved through academic exposure to Freud and neuroimaging research on violent behavior. Despite early skepticism about her interests in psychedelics and inflammation—a field dismissed as “career suicide” in 2006—she persisted, helping to push these once-marginal areas into the psychiatric mainstream.
Now a project leader at San Raffaele’s Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology Unit, Dr. Poletti coordinates international collaborations, including a European ERA-NET Neuron project examining how infections affect mental health. Her leadership brings together experts from psychology, medicine, and biology.
A turning point came when she took on a teaching role in human physiology, a subject unfamiliar to her at the time. The challenge, she says, pushed her boundaries and deepened her knowledge of body-brain interactions—an area central to her later work on neuroinflammation.
Her focus on resilience—why some trauma survivors develop psychiatric disorders while others don’t—reflects both her personal and scientific outlook. Her studies seek to uncover the biological basis of psychological resilience and explore how natural defenses might be enhanced to protect against mental illness.
Clinically, Dr. Poletti’s work has direct implications. She has identified inflammatory markers linked to childhood trauma and pioneered research into immunomodulatory treatments, including the first study on using interleukin-2 to treat mood disorders. This line of inquiry supports a shift toward precision psychiatry, targeting the biological roots of mental illness rather than only managing symptoms.
Her long-term vision is to better understand how the immune system interacts with environmental stressors in shaping psychiatric risk. She aims to develop prevention strategies, particularly for trauma-exposed populations, signaling a move from reactive care to proactive mental health interventions.
Outside the lab, Dr. Poletti draws inspiration from Italy’s mountains, where she finds clarity atop peaks like Sasso Nero. This personal connection to nature complements her scientific philosophy, emphasizing that mental health is shaped by more than biology alone—it is also tied to environment and experience.
Her work now extends to the study of trauma’s transgenerational impact, examining whether early adversity alters gene expression in ways that affect future generations. She also considers how cultural and social contexts influence biological responses to trauma, expanding the relevance of her research from the personal to the societal level.
Dr. Poletti’s findings underscore the deep connections between physical and mental health. By highlighting the immune system’s role in psychiatry, her work calls for broader collaboration across medical disciplines and more holistic approaches to care.
Her research also has broader policy implications. If trauma leaves lasting biological scars, there is a public responsibility to prevent adverse childhood experiences and implement early intervention strategies. Her insights provide a scientific foundation for these crucial discussions.
This interview is part of Innovators & Ideas, a Genomic Press series spotlighting leading scientists whose breakthroughs are reshaping the future. Blending professional insights with personal reflections, the series aims to illuminate the human stories behind transformative research.
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