Andres Herane Vives

His research interest started  when he was doing his psychiatric training, he realised that despite of the fact that millions of people were suffering, not all suffering meant depression. Following this insight, he was lead to consider that this diagnosis was given too easily and that it also engulfed an extremely heterogeneous group of patients. Thereafter, he was able to corroborate his subjective impressions with the objective results provided by the use of several biological samples for measuring cortisol levels, such as hair, the former constituting novel and now validated specimens for measuring long-term cortisol levels, which it is the appropriate level in order to describe the neurobiological alterations found in affective disorders. Overall, he is an advocate of developing new biomarkers. Indeed, in spite of the clear benefits of hair samples, they still have a high number of disadvantages that prevents a widespread clinical use. He is currently working on developing a new biomarker (earwax) for measuring long-term cortisol and glucose, the other particle with a reactive profile of secretion and a new economical, hygienic, safe and effective medical device for its extraction.

Andrés Herane-Vives studied medicine at Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile and afterwards he trained as an adult psychiatrist at the Psychiatric Clinic of Universidad de Chile. In 2011,  he moved to the UK where he did a Master´s degree in Psychiatric Research and then a PhD in Psychological Medicine in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London. He was recently appointed as a Visiting Researcher at the IoPPN. He has been the author of one book, book chapters and several articles which have been published in the best psychiatric journals.