DrHeidi Staudacher

Affiliate Associate Professor

Faculty of Health/School of Medicine

  • Affiliate Associate Professor
    Faculty of Health/School of Medicine
  • +61 3 522 78891 (Work)
  • Geelong Waterfront Campus, 1 Gheringhap Street Geelong, Victoria 3220

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Knowledge Areas
Dietary interventions for disorders of gut-brain interaction
Dietary interventions for common mental disorders
Diet and the microbiome
Dietary assessment
Dietary trial design
Nocebo and placebo responses in IBS

Projects
Heidi leads and is involved in collaborative projects with nutrition, psychology and gastroenterology research groups across Australasia, the UK and
Ireland and the US.

The current research she leads at Deakin includes:

TANDIM trial: Randomised controlled trial of diet intervention in people with IBS and anxiety and/or depressive symptoms

Food, Mood and Microbes: Program of research aiming to address gaps relating to 1) scalable and cost-effective dietary intervention for people with
depression via the BeNEFIT trial, 2) mechanisms underlying the antidepressant effects of the Mediterranean diet, 3) understanding the level of translation of evidence for diet improving symptoms of depression in practice.

Nocebo responses in IBS: Placebo-controlled double-blind crossover dietary challenge trial investigating nocebo responses to dietary components in people with IBS.

GRANTS

  • GRANT
    Optimising and embedding lifestyle therapy into routine childhood mental health services
    1 Apr 2026 - 31 Mar 2031
    People funded by this grant:
    Western Alliance - $20,000.00
  • GRANT
    CALM-Kids: Co-design and evaluation of family-based lifestyle therapy versus placebo control for reducing child anxiety.
    1 Jul 2025 - 30 Jun 2027
    People funded by this grant:
    MRFF EPCDR Childhood Mental Health Research Grant - 2036091 - $998,924.41
  • GRANT
    Optimising and embedding lifestyle therapy into routine childhood mental health services
    1 Apr 2025 - 31 Mar 2031
    People funded by this grant:
    MRFF Early to Mid-Career Researchers - 2041105 - $3,982,928.83
  • GRANT
    CoDeEndo: Co-Designing, Evaluating, and Implementing Supportive Care for Endometriosis
    1 Feb 2023 - 31 Aug 2028
    People funded by this grant:
    Western Alliance - $20,000.00
  • GRANT
    CoDeEndo: Co-Designing, Evaluating, and Implementing Supportive Care for Endometriosis
    1 Feb 2023 - 31 Jan 2028
    People funded by this grant:
    MRFF Clinical Trials Activity Grant - MRF2021609 - $1,470,988.82
  • INTERNAL GRANT
    Characterising the gut microbiome in the Curbing Anxiety and depression using Lifestyle Medicine (CALM) trial: the CALM-MB study
    Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT), Deakin University1 Jan 2023 - 31 Dec 2023
    People funded by this grant:
  • FELLOWSHIP
    Food, mood and microbes: Improving mental health through diet.
    1 Jan 2023 - 31 Dec 2027
    People funded by this grant:
    • Heidi Staudacher
    NHMRC - Investigator Grant - 2018118 - $655,150.00
  • GRANT
    Nocebo response to fermentable carbohydrate dietary challenge: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover challenge trial
    1 Jun 2022 - 1 Jun 2024
    People funded by this grant:
    Rome Foundation Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction International Research Award - $57,488.00
  • INTERNAL GRANT
    Testing and Deployment of mHealth Platforms for the BeNEFIT Trial
    Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT), Deakin University1 Jan 2021 - 31 Dec 2021
    People funded by this grant:
  • GRANT
    The development of the BUB (Bugs, Unborns and Bugs) mHealth program
    1 Sep 2020 - 31 Aug 2022
    People funded by this grant:
    Waterloo Foundation - Child Development - 2013-4237 - $132,088.78
  • INTERNAL GRANT
    Development and evaluation of a control nutrition education program for BeNEFIT, a global web-based randomised controlled dietary intervention trial in people with depressive symptoms
    Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT), Deakin University1 Jan 2019 - 31 Dec 2019
    People funded by this grant: