Prof Valentina Lorenzetti was awarded a PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2012, and conducted postdoctoral research at Monash University, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and University of Liverpool (UK). She is Lead of the Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program and Deputy Director of the Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health at the Australian Catholic University.
Prof Lorenzetti’s research focuses on mapping brain, cognitive and mental health outcomes in addiction using multimodal brain imaging tools, global consortia and multidisciplinary approaches; and develops brain-based interventions to mitigate addiction-related harms. She created the first universal measure of cannabis potency – the standard THC unit – which changed the research agenda of the National Institute of Health and other major international health organisations.
Research
Addiction is the leading cause of preventable illnesses and premature death nationwide and globally, yet it is highly stigmatized and understudied. Prof Lorenzetti and her team believe that everyone vulnerable to or impacted by addiction and mental health problems, deserves the opportunity for a better life. Prof Lorenzetti was awarded the Rebecca L. Cooper Medical Research Foundation Al and Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship beginning in 2022 to unlock the origins of addiction and related mental health problems, and to trial interventions to minimise the harms of addiction. To this end, she will lead research that identifies with precision those most vulnerable to experience brain and mental health harms with cannabis via combining multimodal brain imaging, global consortia and multidisciplinary approaches; and she will examine how mindfulness-based therapies and neuromodulation can mitigate addiction related harms.