Dr Tim Couttas is a Research Fellow, specialising in lipid biochemistry related to mental health and neurodegenerative diseases. He is currently a Research Fellow in the Sydney Brain Bank at NeuRA.

Dr Couttas completed his PhD at the University of New South Wales, where he developed a hexapeptide ligand enrichment method coupled with selective immonium ion scanning mass spectrometry to identify novel methylated lysine residues. His findings contributed to the construction of the first methyllysine interactome in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as part of the ARC-funded NSW Systems Biology Initiative.

In 2013, Dr Couttas joined the Prince of Wales Clinical School as a Research Associate, investigating lipid imbalances in Alzheimer's disease. There, he identified loss of the neuroprotective sphingosine 1-phosphate, as well as the destabilisation of myelin-enriched sphingolipids at the prodromal stages of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2015, Dr Couttas was awarded an NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development Fellowship to continue investigating the molecular mechanisms driving demyelination in Alzheimer’s disease, resulting in the discovery of reduced de novo ceramide synthesis as an early pathogenic event.

In 2020, Dr Couttas was appointed to the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, where he led lipidomic and metabolomic investigations in clinical trials examining the effects of antipsychotics and cannabinoids in schizophrenia and psychosis.

Since joining NeuRA in 2024, Dr Couttas has been leading research into how microplastics and their chemical additives affect brain and mental health. This work aims to characterise the toxicokinetics of plastic-derived compounds and assess their potential neurodegenerative effects through cutting-edge omics pipelines. Dr Couttas also co-leads the Molecular Precision Mental Health Node at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney.