Vicky completed a BSc in Pharmacology and PhD in Psychopharmacology and Behavioural Neuroscience here at Newcastle using animal models to understand the neurobiology of addiction and test novel treatments. She then completed a 4-year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health working on human laboratory studies and clinical trials to improve treatments for co-morbid addiction in severe mental illnesses taking a multi-modal approach combining pharmacogenetics, neurocognition, brain stimulation and neuroimaging. She then trained in medicine at Imperial College London and completed an Academic Clinical Fellowship working on fMRI studies in addiction and neuroendocrinology. Vicky moved back to Newcastle for an Academic Clinical Fellowship in General Adult Psychiatry within the Northern Centre for Mood Disorders.