Lea Perret

Investigates biological pathways linking peer bullying to suicidal risk

Léa Perret is a PhD student in the Mental Health Research program at the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Geoffroy and Dr. Turecki. She holds a BSc in Biology with first class honours from Mahihol University, Thailand, and a MSc in Neuroscience from McGill University.

Throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies, as well as several positions as a research assistant and coordinator, she’s cultivated research skills and experience in mental health and neuroscience. Her master’s thesis includes a first-author article published in Nature Neuroscience on the molecular mechanisms of susceptibility and resilience to depression.

Her PhD thesis focuses on investigating the underlying mechanisms in the association between peer victimization, depressive symptoms in population-based samples. Her first PhD project on the association between cybervictimization and suicidal ideation in adolescents has been published in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. She also published an article in Journal of Affective Disorders on friend support as a protective factor in the association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms in collaboration with a research team at Korea University. In addition to receiving the FRQS Doctoral Award, she was awarded an additional partial scholarship from the Réseau Québecois sur le Suicide, les Troubles de l’Humeur et les Troubles Associés (2018-2019), to investigate genetic vulnerability (polygenic risk scores) in relation to peer victimization, depressive symptoms.

Léa currently holds a Doctoral Award (2018-2022) from Fonds de Recherche en Santé – Québec.