Dr Katerina Johnson

Research Associate in Experimental Psychology

About

Dr Katerina Johnson is interested in the gut and its complex microbial community, its interactions with the brain and the ways in which the gut can affect how we think, feel and behave i.e. the science of that ‘gut feeling’. 

Her research focuses on this microbiome-gut-brain connection, an exciting frontier in neuroscience, and its potential to provide novel insights into individual variation in social behaviour, emotion, cognition and personality.  She is also interested in the microbiome from an evolutionary and ecological perspective.

Dr Johnson is a keen science communicator, with her research often featuring in the media, and is also involved in science policy, contributing to parliamentary roundtables on gut health and the Government’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) expert panel and steering group on the gut-brain-immunology axis.

Expertise

  • Microbiome
  • Probiotics & prebiotics
  • Gut bacteria
  • Brain & behaviour
  • Social behaviour
  • Evolution

Media experience

Dr Katerina Johnson has considerable experience working with local, national and international media, including live and pre-recorded interviews for television and radio e.g. Sky News, ITV, BBC, The Guardian, Telegraph and Time magazine. She also has work experience in the industry as a researcher for science documentaries for the BBC and National Geographic. Dr Johnson was also chosen to be a TEDx Speaker 2019.

Please visit Dr Johnson's Twitter feed and YouTube channel for current and past media engagement and science communication activities.

Languages

English, some French