Kim Do Cuénod was born in Hanoi (Vietnam) in 1953. She studied chemistry at the University of Neuchâtel (CH) and achieved her degree of chemical engineer cum laude. She completed her PhD in 1980 (silver medal for the best thesis) at the Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (CH), where she worked as an assistant until 1982. She joined the Brain Research Institute of the University of Zurich in 1983, where she stayed until 1998. She was appointed senior lecturer at the University of Zurich in 1996.
In 1999, she set up the Unit for Research in Schizophrenia at the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience (Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital, CH). She developed a translational program “bench to bed” linking basic neurobiological research with clinical research; she thus promotes an interdisciplinary approach and close collaboration between experts in neuroscience and clinicians (psychiatrists, psychologists). Her program is aimed at a better understanding of the causes and mechanisms leading to psychosis in order to facilitate early diagnosis and intervention, and to develop new treatments as well as preventive measures.
In addition to her research activities, Prof. Kim Do Cuénod also works on professional education and public outreach towards better care and cure of major psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, she has established fruitful collaboration with researchers in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, China and several European countries.
Prof. Do Cuénod has authored over 350 scientific publications, is serving on the editorial boards of several journals in the field of biological psychiatry, and sat on advisory/evaluation committees of many institutions, among which the Swiss National Science Foundation (CH), Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (F), The Wellcome Trust (UK), Medical Research Council (UK), National Institute of Health (USA), and National Science Foundation (USA). She is member of a great number of scientific committees and societies in Switzerland and on the internationel level.
Prof. Do Cuénod received the NARSAD Independent Investigator Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (USA) in 2006, and the NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award in 2010. In 2014, she was elected Individual Member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) due to her exceptional scientific performance in medicine. In 2018, she received the SIRS Outstanding Basic Science Award from the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) as well as the Elsevier Senior Schizophrenia Research Award from the American publisher Elsevier.
Kim Do Cuénod was appointed senior lecturer at the University of Lausanne in 2000, associate professor in translational research in psychiatry in April 2011, and full professor in February 2017. She was head of the Unit for Research in Schizophrenia between 1999 and 2022, and director of the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience between 2013 and 2019.
Since 2022, Kim Do Cuénod is a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, and at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, UK, which are two world-renowned and highly prestigious institutions. These mandates are a great honor and an outstanding recognition of her professional career. They were initiated thanks to her long-standing collaboration with Prof. Dost Öngür (Head of the Division of Psychotic Diseases, McLean Hospital, and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School) and Prof. Paola Dazzan (Professor of the Neurobiology of Psychosis, King’s College). She is also a visiting professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) in the Laboratory for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, directed by Prof. Rolf Gruetter.
Kim Do Cuénod is a founding member of the Alamaya Foundation and has been member of the Board of Trustees since its creation in 2002.
Publication list : https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1968-1646