Kadi Vaher

Postdoctoral scientist

  • Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

Room GU437
Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
Chancellor's Building
49 Little France Crescent

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH16 4SB

Availability

  • I am happy to meet by appointment. To schedule a convenient date and time, please email me at kadi.vaher@ed.ac.uk

Background

I earned my BA in Psychology, with a minor in Gene Technology, from the University of Tartu (Estonia) in 2017. I then moved to the UK and graduated from the University College London with MRes in Biosciences with a specialisation in Neurosciences in 2018. I completed my PhD in Translational Neurosciences from the University of Edinburgh in 2023, under the supervision of Prof James Boardman and Prof Debby Bogaert. Following my PhD, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Prof Boardman at the Centre for Reproductive Health and Centre of Clinical Brain Sciences. Since 2025, I am working as a Postdoctoral Scientist with Dr Gemma Sullivan.

Qualifications

PhD in Translational Neuroscience (2018-2023), University of Edinburgh. Thesis is available here: https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/40487?show=full

MRes in Biosciences: Neurosciences (2017-2018), University College London

BA in Psychology, with a minor in Gene Technology (2014-2017), University of Tartu

Research summary

My research interests broadly lie in understanding early life environmental, clinical and biological factors contributing to brain development and mental health outcomes. In my PhD thesis I worked towards understanding the drivers of preterm infant gut microbiome, and how the composition of the gut microbiome in the neonatal period correlates with subsequent brain development. As such, my work has integrated data across domains including metagenome sequencing, brain MRI, behaviour and patient medical records.

In my current role as a postdoctoral scientist in CCBS, I am investigating sex differences and the impact of inflammation in neonatal brain development. I am actively contributing to several other research projects that are concerned with the role of inflammation and gut microbiome in preterm infant brain and behavioural development, and brain MRI correlates for subsequent behavioural outcomes.

Current research interests

microbiome, brain development, inflammation, mental health outcomes, data integration