Congratulations to Associate Professor Divya Mehta who was named as one of the 2021 Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Award winners. Associate Professor Mehta was awarded for her work to identify lifestyle factors that alter stress-responsive gene activity and could impact our mental health and well-being.
She focuses on the ‘epigenetics’ of mental health – how changes in our environment can alter gene activity – by analysing big data to measure chemical DNA changes in response to lifestyle factors.
“About 45 per cent of Australians experience a mental health disorder during their life, and the COVID-19 pandemic has increased rates of depression, anxiety and suicide worldwide,” Associate Professor Mehta said.
“Stress affects everyone, but we all respond differently. I aim to identify key genes involved in stress responses that impact our physical and psychological health.
“By measuring chemical DNA changes in response to positive and negative lifestyle factors we can also determine which factors ‘drive’ stress-responsive genes.”
Associate Professor Mehta runs the Stress Genomics group in the School of Biomedical Sciences and is Program Co-lead, Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Analysis, QUT Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health.
She has received $3.7 million in research funding, including a $1.2 million 2021 NHMRC Ideas grant to lead a world-first study investigating biopsychosocial risk and protective factors driving stress response in Australian emergency responders.
“My research suggests that positive lifestyle factors can reduce and even reverse some of the negative effects of stress on our genes,” Associate Professor Mehta said.
“For example, paramedic students with higher levels of social support had lower levels of stress-related gene activity and reduced rates of mental health symptoms when exposed to stress.”
This year, Queensland Chief Scientist, Professor Hugh Possingham, announced the Queensland Tall Poppy Awards recipients on Wednesday 21 July at QUT’s Science and Engineering Centre.