I am Senior Professor, Head of the Clinical Research Unit on Disorders of Neurodevelopment and Cognition, and Chair (em.) of the Division of Molecular Psychiatry, Center of Mental Health, at the Department of Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg. Until 2024 I was Associate Professor at the Department of Neuroscience, MHeNS at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. I underwent training as a clinical psychiatrist at the University of Würzburg during which I was awarded a Research Fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, USA. My research has been focusing on the molecular neurobiology of cognitive control and self-regulation, epigenetics of brain development and neuronal plasticity, imaging genetics, animal models of attention, cognition, and learning/memory as well as pathogenetic mechanisms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD) and co-morbid disorders, depression and substance use. I was Director of the Clinical Research Unit on ADHD, co-director of the DFG Graduate Programme RTG 1253, member of the Executive Board of the DFG Graduate Programme RTG 2660, founding member of the International Graduate School of Life Sciences (GSLS). I have extensive experience in international collaborative projects and have been receiving research funding from various funding agencies including NIH, European Commission (6th and 7th Framework and Horizon 2020 Programmes: NEWMOOD, AGGRESSOTYPE, Eat2beNICE, AquaSynapse, ERA-Net Neuron), Joint German-Israeli Research Program, DFG, BMBF and Thyssen Foundation.

As a consultant at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Würzburg, Georg Ziegler oversees a ward focused on treating patients with depressive disorders, especially difficult-to-treat depression. He has developed a particular interest in the study of the neuropsychobiological mechanisms of ADHD at the (epi)genetic, cellular (neuronal), and network levels ever since completing his medical doctoral thesis on the cellular and neural function of the ADHD risk gene SLC2A3. His work includes both human iPSC-derived neuronal cell culture models and functional imaging techniques, guided by genetic information. As a translational question, he is particularly interested in the causes for somatic and mental comorbidity in ADHD. He has recently extended the scope of his fundamental neurobiology research and taken part in clinical trials examining the therapeutic effects of transcranial direct current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation in adult ADHD and major depression.

Link to publications

Link to projects