🤧🧬 “When you sneeze, tiny bits of your DNA fly out.” True or false? Today I talked and experimented with Grade 6 pupils about genes, environment, practice, and experiences, and why children differ from one another. Great questions, lots of curiosity. #MeetTheProfessor vu.nl/en/news/2026...

Excited to be affiliated with Karolinska Institutet (ki.se), Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB)! Looking forward to collaborations on genetic epidemiology, neurodevelopmental conditions, & intergenerational research, using incredible Swedish twin and population data ki.se/en/people/el...

Wonderful discussions at the LEAD Retreat in Tübingen after my keynote on genes, environments, learning, & ADHD. Interdisciplinary audiences always ask the best questions: about causality, stats, and what heritability means for intervention. And: 😀Keynote by day, acrobatics instructor by night 🤸‍♀️🧬

Wonderful discussions at the LEAD Retreat in Tübingen after my keynote on genes, environments, learning, & ADHD. Interdisciplinary audiences always ask the best questions: about causality, stats, and what heritability means for intervention. And: 😀Keynote by day, acrobatics instructor by night 🤸‍♀️🧬

📄 Preprint: osf.io/dt647 🧮 Great collaboration led by Lotta Sieppi and @mtorppa.bsky.social, together with Daria Khanolainen, Eija Räikkönen, Jenni Salminen, Tuire Koponen, and myself. @uniofjyvaskyla.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @mcls-official.bsky.social @mclstrainee.bsky.social 2/2

🎲 More informal home math activities (e.g. games) are linked to stronger arithmetic development. 🧬But parents also pass on genes related to math skills. After accounting for parental maths (Familial Control Method), associations attenuated. 🧠 #Dyscalculia runs in families. 📄 osf.io/dt647 1/2

I think it's important for neuroscientists to reinforce this too. It's the first thing I teach in my cog neuro class. A thing isn't more real just because it's found in the brain. Every psychological thing must be in the brain at some level

🎲 More informal home math activities (e.g. games) are linked to stronger arithmetic development. 🧬But parents also pass on genes related to math skills. After accounting for parental maths (Familial Control Method), associations attenuated. 🧠 #Dyscalculia runs in families. 📄 osf.io/dt647 1/2

🌿 EdGen lab retreat Walking meetings, flash talks, writing sessions, discussing Paige Harden’s Original Sin, yoga/runs, and arts & crafts. A good reminder that science is also about creating space to think, collaborate, and enjoy science together. 🙏 to @jacobsfoundation.bsky.social & my lab

This week we're pleased to share this highly commended entry from our 2025-26 Art Competition. This entry comes from Ottilie, age 13. The competition explored the meaning of 'personalised medicine', with entrants showing us what it means to them 💊🎨🖌️🧬

Next week at the LEAD Retreat (Tübingen): 🎤 keynote on genetics × environment in learning & ADHD 🤸 partner acrobatics workshop Not a combination I often bring together! But both are about collaboration and balance 📷 Today at my home campus @vuamsterdam.bsky.social #AcademicLife #NeverGrowOld 1/2

Next week at the LEAD Retreat (Tübingen): 🎤 keynote on genetics × environment in learning & ADHD 🤸 partner acrobatics workshop Not a combination I often bring together! But both are about collaboration and balance 📷 Today at my home campus @vuamsterdam.bsky.social #AcademicLife #NeverGrowOld 1/2

We schreven voor Medisch Contact een artikel over polygene embryoselectie 🧬👶🏽 Hierin leggen we uit wat deze technologie wel en niet kan, waarom de voorspellende waarde beperkt is, welke onbedoelde neveneffecten er kunnen zijn, en welke ethische en maatschappelijke vragen dit oproept.

Job ad: Postdoc to work with me & @rogierk.bsky.social at the Donders on lifespan development questions from Sept onward! Profile: independent, good quant skills, interested in theory-driven work Please share widely www.careersatradboudumc.com/vacancies/po... #Postdoc #AcademicJobs

🧩Learning to talk & read isn’t just about effort or teaching—it’s shaped by biology, experience & context 🧠Our new review links genetics, neuroscience, psychology & education to show why some children find language or reading easier. 📖 doi.org/10.31234/osf... 🖼️genes→brain→cognition→behaviour 🧵👇

Me & @aysuo.bsky.social are hiring a postdoc to study gene–environment interplay in health & social inequalities 🧬 You'll analyze genomic data as part of a collaboration with Uppsala & Oslo at @amsterdamumc.bsky.social (NL) werkenbij.amsterdamumc.org/en/vacatures... Please RT for karma points ♥️

Hey friends, my new paper was just published in JAMA Psychiatry. I draw on biological species classification to sketch a new framework for psychiatric nosology. Brief summary follows below. Full text link: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... 🧪 #PsychSciSky #MentalHealth

🧮 Do home maths activities help children learn? Only partly. What looks like an “environmental effect” may partly reflect shared family characteristics. 🔗 osf.io/9hu3g 👉 Accounting for familial confounding matters in education research — and is why we developed the Familial Control Method.

We're hiring! Dutch-speaking student assistant (1–2 days/week) for our TwinWise project on genes, environment & children’s learning and neurodevelopment (Amsterdam). Are you a student who's interested in science and working with families/schools? Deadline 15 March werkenbij.vu.nl/vacatures/st...

Working from Stockholm this week! Speaking at Karolinska Institutet on causal inference in education & ADHD, using family-based & genomic designs. Grateful to the Psychiatric Epidemiology group for the invitation and warm welcome. Come say hi if you’re around!

We're hiring! Dutch-speaking student assistant (1–2 days/week) for our TwinWise project on genes, environment & children’s learning and neurodevelopment (Amsterdam). Are you a student who's interested in science and working with families/schools? Deadline 15 March werkenbij.vu.nl/vacatures/st...

DNA or parents’ reading: what predicts #dyslexia risk? 🧬 Polygenic score → 6% 🎓 Each parent’s education → 6% 📚 Parents' reading ability → 21% PGS are informative, not diagnostic. Family phenotypes predict at least as much as DNA Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps... 21%: doi.org/10.1080/1088...

Really important point here from Elsje. It is crucial to include information about genetic/familial links when considering causes of disorders but lets not hype them as the ultimate solution.

DNA or parents’ reading: what predicts #dyslexia risk? 🧬 Polygenic score → 6% 🎓 Each parent’s education → 6% 📚 Parents' reading ability → 21% PGS are informative, not diagnostic. Family phenotypes predict at least as much as DNA Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps... 21%: doi.org/10.1080/1088...

📢 LEARN! seminar in Amsterdam Genetics meets environment: twin studies & polygenic scores in learning and neurodiversity. 📅 12 Feb | 📍 VU Amsterdam | 🍷 drinks afterwards All are very welcome! This marks me starting as Programme Leader Educational Neuroscience at LEARN! @geneamsterdam.bsky.social

📢 LEARN! seminar in Amsterdam Genetics meets environment: twin studies & polygenic scores in learning and neurodiversity. 📅 12 Feb | 📍 VU Amsterdam | 🍷 drinks afterwards All are very welcome! This marks me starting as Programme Leader Educational Neuroscience at LEARN! @geneamsterdam.bsky.social

Thanks everyone who attended the 4th annual #GENEAmsterdam meeting - we had a great time! Keep an eye out for the website and socials - more details on the day will be posted soon 👀 ! For now, a large thanks to Adrià Túnez Aquilué, Tessa Zonneveld and Aysu Okbay for this years organization.

New paper by PD student Bob Kapteijns (not on bsky) How do reading, math, and various cognitive skills "grow together" in early childhood? 🧠📚 osf.io/preprints/ps...

🎙️Out now: the first episode of the new @essgn.bsky.social podcast by @rafaelahlskog.bsky.social @aysuo.bsky.social, featuring @dr-appie.bsky.social essgn.podbean.com/e/1-abdel-ab...

🎙️Thanks to @eugeniakis.bsky.social for the thoughtful conversation on her #podcast Psychology Inside Out. open.spotify.com/episode/6Sxt... @geneamsterdam.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social (2/2)

People often ask me what I use to create my plots. I use mostly R, but I have to admit that I cheat a little bit with Adobe Illustrator 🧑🏽‍🎨 See slide show below for some of my edits 👇🏽

🎙️ #Podcast open.spotify.com/episode/6Sxt... 🧬 genetics shape differences — but are not destiny 🧠 dyslexia & ADHD often co-occur due to shared genes 👨‍👩‍👧 families pass on both genes and environments 🎓 better science → fairer education & mental-health support 🧭 also reflects on non-linear academic paths

Unusually white #Amsterdam this week ❄️ Slippery cycling, but incredibly beautiful. 📍Kalfjeslaan #winter #snow #sneeuw #Netherlands #cycling #fietsen

Snowy start to our Grant Writing & Science Communication course ☃️ Despite slippery roads, students showed up. After class, campus turned into a winter playground. Grown-ups can still play! Proud of our students. Grateful to teach the next generation of scientists. 🔗 vu.nl/genes #rmGBH #SciComm

(2/2) 🎉 Proud supervisor moment: congratulations @josefina-bernardo.bsky.social on her 1st PhD paper! With @charlottepahnke.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @geneamsterdam.bsky.social @ibbamsterdam.bsky.social #ERC #BehaviourGenetics #GeneEnvironmentInterplay #DevelopmentalScience #PhDSupervision

🧠 Parents and siblings shape children’s environments— but families also share genes 🧬 Because genes influence behaviour, environments are partly shaped by genetics too To separate genetic from environmental influences, we need genetic data from both parents and siblings 🧪 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s105...

🎙️ #Podcast open.spotify.com/episode/6Sxt... 🧬 genetics shape differences — but are not destiny 🧠 dyslexia & ADHD often co-occur due to shared genes 👨‍👩‍👧 families pass on both genes and environments 🎓 better science → fairer education & mental-health support 🧭 also reflects on non-linear academic paths

🧠 Parents and siblings shape children’s environments— but families also share genes 🧬 Because genes influence behaviour, environments are partly shaped by genetics too To separate genetic from environmental influences, we need genetic data from both parents and siblings 🧪 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s105...

This day 44 years ago I was born. Grateful to do science like a grown-up — and still play like a 14-year-old. 🎂✨

Professionally, this sabbatical year was a gift. Grateful to PROMENTA (@eivindy.bsky.social @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social) and CREATE (@melbylervag.bsky.social @unioslo-uv.bsky.social) at the University of Oslo for hosting me so generously, and to the many dear collaborators across Oslo. (3/5)

In the summer of 2024, we arrived in Oslo as a family for a sabbatical year. This summer, we returned to Amsterdam. I’m only reflecting now, because reflection takes time, and last week working in Oslo brought everything back. If you live somewhere for exactly 1 year, every season counts. (1/5)

Honoured to be featured by the @jacobsfoundation.bsky.social Research Fellowship. Their support enables ambitious, cross-border science on how genetics and environments shape children’s learning & development. 🌍🧬 Work with other Fellows nature.com/articles/s41... nature.com/articles/s41...

I wonder how much quicker papers would be rejected or published on average if journal software would forward out of office responses of contacted reviewers to handling editors — something that requires advanced software available since ... *checks* ... the 90s.

Nominations for the UKRN Dorothy Bishop Prize 2026 have opened! Named after @deevybee.bsky.social, the prize, first awarded in 2022, celebrates the contributions of early career researchers to research improvement. Nominations close 18 January 2026. #AcademicSky #Research

📚 Further reading from my talk • Hart, Little & van Bergen (2021), Nurture might be nature www.nature.com/articles/s41... • @dr-appie.bsky.social @loic-yengo.bsky.social Verweij & Visscher (2023), 15 years of GWAS discovery www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...

🧬 3 key ideas from my ABC×iBBA talk: Behavioural genetics helps explain why people differ Genes & environments are intertwined—correlations between e.g. parenting and child outcome aren’t automatically causal Knowing genetics sharpens questions about brain & behaviour 📸 @ltchen.bsky.social

🧬 3 key ideas from my ABC×iBBA talk: Behavioural genetics helps explain why people differ Genes & environments are intertwined—correlations between e.g. parenting and child outcome aren’t automatically causal Knowing genetics sharpens questions about brain & behaviour 📸 @ltchen.bsky.social

In 2,000 children followed from Grades 1–9, we find that #LearningDifficulties co-occur strongly with each other, but only weakly with #ADHD. While ADHD affects reading comprehension over time, it does not drive reading fluency or arithmetic. 🔗 osf.io/rvd9q/ Led by @mpsyridou.bsky.social 1/5

🚀 From history teacher-to-be in CAN to behavioural geneticist in NL: My PhD student Kassandra Pomper shares her journey in this VU interview “I dreaded statistics… but I couldn’t have been more wrong” 🔗 vu.nl/en/stories/k... Proud of Kassandra & #SCANNER team studying sex differences in autism 💙

Origins of language, one of humanity’s most distinctive traits, may be best explained as a unique convergence of multiple capacities each with its own evolutionary history, involving intertwined roles of biology & culture. This framing can expand research horizons. A 🧵 on our @science.org paper.🧪1/n