Dr. Daria Peleg-Raibstein

Research area

Daria Peleg-Raibstein's independent research group  has been running continuously since 2012, funded by uninterrupted external grants. The group specializes in cognitive and behavioral psychology, focusing on understanding how emotional and cognitive processes (eg anxiety, memory, motivation) are controlled by environmental inputs (eg nutrition). The group typically consists of 1-2 postdocs and 1-3 PhD students . Currently active are the following independent projects:

1.  Reward, motivation and intergenerational effects (SNF grant, PI Peleg-Raibstein):  We map how exposure to obesogenic nutrition or drugs of abuse during conception, gestation, lactation or adulthood rewires dopaminergic, hypothalamic and limbic networks. These circuit changes drive compulsive appetitive behavior and transmit neurobiological risk to subsequent generations.  

2.  Stress ‑ linked cognition (ETH grant, PI Peleg-Raibstein):  We dissect the neural mechanisms underlying anxiety‑related disorders and cognitive impairment. By targeting specific neuronal populations in the hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, we reveal how these regions coordinate adaptive learning, memory consolidation and stress resilience particularly under metabolic challenge.

Key research papers from the lab (reviews and book chapters not included):

Kandasamey P, Peleg-Raibstein D *. Programming the Brain: How Maternal Overnutrition Shapes Cognitive Aging in Offspring. Nutrients 2025. DOI: 10.3390/nu17060988

Guillaumin, MCC, Viskaitis, P., Bracey, E., Burdakov, D., Peleg-Raibstein, D *. Disentangling the role of NAc D1 and D2 cells in hedonic eating. Molecular Psychiatry 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02131-x

Guillaumin MCC, Syarov B, Burdakov D, Peleg-Raibstein D *. Something to Snack on: Can Dietary Modulators Boost Mind and Body? Nutrients. 2023 Mar 10;15(6):1356. doi: 10.3390/nu15061356.

Sarker G, Litwan K, Kastli R, Peleg-Raibstein D *. Maternal overnutrition during critical developmental periods leads to different health adversities in the offspring: relevance of obesity, addiction and schizophrenia. Sci Rep. 2019. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-53652-x

Wolfrum C, Peleg-Raibstein D *. Maternal overnutrition leads to cognitive and neurochemical abnormalities in C57BL/6 mice. Nutr Neurosci. 2019. DOI: 10.1080/1028415X.2018.1432096

Sarker G, Sun W, Rosenkranz D, Pelczar P, Opitz L, Efthymiou V, Wolfrum C, Peleg-Raibstein D*. Maternal overnutrition programs hedonic and metabolic phenotypes across generations through sperm tsRNAs. PNAS. 2019. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1820810116

Sarker G, Peleg-Raibstein D * . Maternal Overnutrition Induces Long-Term Cognitive Deficits across Several Generations. Nutrients. 2018. DOI: 10.3390/nu11010007

Sarker G, Berrens R, von Arx J, Pelczar P, Reik W, Wolfrum C, Peleg-Raibstein D *. Transgenerational transmission of hedonic behaviors and metabolic phenotypes induced by maternal overnutrition. Transl Psychiatry. 2018. DOI: 10.1038/s41398-018-0243-2

Peleg-Raibstein D* , Sarker G, Litwan K, Krämer SD, Ametamey SM, Schibli R, Wolfrum C. Enhanced sensitivity to drugs of abuse and palatable foods following maternal overnutrition. Transl Psychiatry. 2016. DOI: 10.1038/tp.2016.176

Peleg-Raibstein D *, Luca E, Wolfrum C. Maternal high-fat diet in mice programs emotional behavior in adulthood. Behav Brain Res. 2012. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2012.05.027

*senior, corresponding author