Early adversity and lifelong health
Her work examines how perinatal and early-childhood environments shape healthy growth, neurodevelopment, behavior, mental health, and cardiometabolic risk across the life course.
Silveira Lab, McGill University
Patricia Pelufo Silveira, MD, MSc, PhD
Physician-scientist studying how early environments become biologically embedded to shape neurodevelopment, mental health, metabolic health, and resilience across the lifespan.
Current Roles
- Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
- Researcher, Douglas Research Centre, Human Neuroscience Division
- Scientific Director, Genomic and Epigenetic Pillar, Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health
- Senior Fellow, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
- Member, National Scientific Council on the Developing Child
200+peer-reviewed publications
70+trainees supervised or co-supervised
35Scopus H-index
4languages: Portuguese, English, French, Spanish
Research Program
Dr. Silveira leads an internationally recognized research program on the biological embedding of early-life adversity and its consequences for mental and physical health.
Functional genomics and ePRS
She developed expression-based Polygenic Risk Scores (ePRS), a biologically informed approach that links genetic variation to tissue-specific gene co-expression networks rather than isolated variants.
Neurometabolic mechanisms
Her laboratory investigates brain-metabolic pathways, including insulin and dopaminergic signaling, that connect early adversity with reward, impulsivity, emotional regulation, and metabolic vulnerability.
HERO translational initiatives
Through the Health Early Roots and Origins initiatives, she advances scalable tools for assessing stress activation and resilience in early childhood, bridging discovery science, pediatric practice, and policy.
Leadership and Recognition
Dr. Silveira is an elected member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada, an FRQS Chercheur-Boursier Senior, and a Senior Fellow at Harvard's Center on the Developing Child.
Her leadership spans international research networks, functional genomics training, graduate education, and policy-facing work on child development and early adversity.
- Elected to the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada
- FRQS Chercheur-Boursier Senior
- Visiting Associate Professor, National University of Singapore
- Principal Investigator, Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health
- Director of HERO initiatives in the United States and Canada
Training and Mentorship
Mentorship is central to the Silveira Lab. Dr. Silveira trains graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scholars, and interdisciplinary collaborators in developmental neuroscience, genomics, psychiatry, and translational child health.
"My academic career has been guided by a central question: how do early environmental conditions become biologically embedded to shape mental and physical health trajectories across the life course?"
Contact
Douglas Mental Health University Institute
6875 LaSalle Boulevard, Montreal, QC H4H 1R3
Office: Perry E4116