New preprint by Xiaopu Zhang! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @jordanatbell.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social

Incredibly honoured to be awarded an NWO Veni grant 🎉! Looking forward to starting this next phase of my career at @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @vuamsterdam.bsky.social. Many thanks to my collaborators for their assistance and advice while writing this grant!

🥳Congratulations to #GENEAmsterdam researcher Fiona Hagenbeek, for receiving a VENI to study genetic and molecular influences on externalizing behaviors from childhood into (early) adulthood at @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social! www.nwo.nl/nieuws/200-o...

We have a new preprint: this work is especially dear to my heart, as it results from the data collection pipeline we established at the Netherlands Twin Register, which enabled us to collect Facebook posts and likes (paid for with plenty of blood, sweat, and tears...) osf.io/preprints/ps...

Big congrats to our colleague @alandvreugd.bsky.social , who successfully defended her thesis "Night and Day: A Study on the Triangular Association between Light, the Circadian Rhythm and Wellbeing" on June 17th! 🎓🌙☀️ Wishing you all the best in your next chapter, Anne! 🚀👏 #PhDDefense #Congrats

On June 5th, our amazing colleague @josefina-bernardo.bsky.social shared with the APH community all the incredible work she’s done with the personalized medicine grant she received last year. 💡💊 So inspiring to see what impact this support has made! 🚀 #PersonalizedMedicine #APH #TravelGrant

On June 4th, our scientists brought the Health Lab to the kids of Amsterdam — and wow, what a day! So much fun, so much curiosity, and so many bright young minds. 🧪🌈 Big thanks to everyone who joined us and helped make science come alive! 💥🧬 #HealthLab #Amsterdam #ScienceFun

🧵 Just published! (And yes, it has something to say about the social media use + wellbeing debate 👀) Are the links between social media use (SMU) and wellbeing (WB) or anxious-depressive symptoms (ADS) partly driven by genetics? Just checkout this thread:

Here we have a thread of one of the M-thesis of our master "Genes in Behavior and Health"! Congratulations Pietro!

🎓 Big congrats to @selimsametoglu.bsky.social, who defended his PhD on May 27th! His research, “Social Media as a Source for Understanding Differences in Wellbeing,” explores how digital platforms reflect our lived experiences. Way to go, Dr. Sametoğlu! 👏 #PhDDefense #SocialMedia #Wellbeing

Financial stress is most strongly associated with epigenetic aging amongst a broad range of negative life events (between-family estimates). By Bodine Gonggrijp @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @essgn.bsky.social

Very grateful that I got to present at the ESSGN past Friday. In the study I presented, we looked at intergenerational transmission of education in a sample of the Norwegian population register. We used a Children-of-Twins model to look at GPA at age 16 and educational attainment in the parents.

1/2; Check out our new paper on #Dizygotic #Twinning and female #fertility: doi.org/10.1007/s108... In this collaboration from @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social and the Norwegian #MoBa study, we use several genetically informed methods to investigate the genetic architecture of DZ Twinning.

Great Colloquium this month with Brad Verhulst talking Gene-Environment Interaction in the Genomic Era 🧬🧠 Thanks for making a tricky topic feel (almost) easy! Come back soon 👏 #Genomics #SciTalks #Colloquium #BehavioralGenetics

Big shoutout to @liannedevries.bsky.social and @margotvdweijer.bsky.social from our dept who rocked their talk at #PintOfScienceNL this week 🍻🧪 Science, a pint, and a room full of curious minds — perfect combo. They made us proud! #SciComm #WomenInSTEM #PintOfScience #STEMoutreach

Last week, a few BioPsy members joined 60+ members of the @stress-in-action.bsky.social in Amersfoort for the biannual meeting. Special shoutout to our four PhD students who presented their posters—inspiring research and bold plans for the future. Keep it up! 👏 #StressInAction #consortiummeeting

Last week, our master's students took part in Career Day! 🎓💼 They connected with PhDs, alumni, and industry professionals from a range of scientific fields 🔬🧠💻. We hope you left inspired ✨ and wish you all the best on your journey ahead! 🚀 #CareerDay #ScienceCareers #MastersLife #Scientists

I love having my Amsterdam colleagues Alexandra Starr & Bruno Sauce at @uio.no Oslo this week! 🪦Bruno on the dark age of genetics when candidate gene findings failed to replicate: <0.1% var explained 🧬Alexandra: sample size > deep phenotyping, & PGS ≠ causality or determinism @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social

I'm in the Danish newspaper #Weekendavisen, talking about #reading, #enjoyment & #genetics. Kids often enjoy reading because they’re good at it—more than the other way around. So, good teaching is key! 📍More (incl. PDF) on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/... #SciComm @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social

🧠This month’s colloquium featured two fascinating talks! 🔬 Conor walked us through complicated twin models under phenotypic assortative mating. 🌫️ We also welcomed guest speaker Dorina Ibi from Utrecht University, who presented on “The Impact of PM2.5 on Transcriptome-Methylome Cross-Omics Analyses.”

🎉Exciting news! Our Research Master's Genes in Behavior and Health has been awarded the Award of Excellence by the 2025 Keuzegids! 🔍 Still searching for a Master’s program for 2025–2026? Curious about the biological and environmental roots of behavior and disease? 👉 Apply now: vu.nl/en/education...

This is definitely #TeamScience! Huge thanks to the fantastic @hfsunde.bsky.social @carorowland.bsky.social @melbylervag.bsky.social @torvik.bsky.social & to our funders @erc.europa.eu @mpi-nl.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @jacobsfoundation.bsky.social #VIDI #NFR 🧵6/6👉 osf.io/preprints/ps...

Good news! @hubersnikki.bsky.social article about multi-omics analysis of ADHD achieved the Top Viewed Article status from #AJMG of articles published in 2023. Read it here onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #TopViewedArticle @wiley.com @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @fionahagenbeek.bsky.social

Our new study in Molecular Psychiatry, in 1528 children and their parents (@ntrbiopsy.bsky.social) shows that indirect genetic effects—where parental genetics shape offspring traits via environmental influences (genetic nurture)—impact DNA methylation of children. doi.org/10.1038/s413... (1/5)

A small step towards understanding the biology of wellbeing! 🧬 In our latest study, team wellbeing looked at blood metabolites and found hints that lipid metabolism might play a role in how we feel. Lots more to explore, but an interesting lead. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New BioPsy papers were published lately too. Interesting new research from Pedro and colleagues: we've found that the way our brain ages is linked to how our blood ages — and that environmental factors play an important role in this process. You can read more in the paper: doi.org/10.1093/brai...

Three of our PhD students had the opportunity to present at a seminar at the CREATE Center, University of Oslo. Great to see their hard work shared with such a fantastic audience! 👏 #PhDStudents #CREATECenter #UniversityOfOslo #Research

This month, our PhD students visited Boulder to attend the ISG workshop! Here are some pictures of them, also with their posters at the event. 📸✨ #ISGWorkshop #PhDStudents #Research #AcademicLife

Our second speaker at the BioPsy colloquia was Anne van den Maagdenberg, who gave an insightful talk on Open Access at the VU. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge, Anne! 🙏 #OpenAccess #Research #BioPsy #VU

On March 18th, we had another great session of the BioPsy colloquia. Dave Leitritz presented “Combining Longitudinal Change Features of Childhood Psychopathology with Polygenic Risk Scores in Multimodal Prediction Models of Adult Wellbeing.” Thanks, Dave, for sharing this fascinating project!

Yesterday, Dr. Hekmat Alrough defended his PhD thesis "Child Development and Mental Health." Congratulations on this amazing achievement! 🎉 #PhDDefense #ChildDevelopment #MentalHealth #Research

This past Monday, Dr. Bodine Gonngrijp successfully defended her PhD thesis "Invisible Scars: Unravelling the Epigenetic and Mental Health Consequences of Victimization." Congratulations on this important milestone! 👏 #PhDDefense #Research #MentalHealth #Epigenetics

We’ve been celebrating several PhD defenses lately! 🎓 On February 5th, Dr. Susanne Bruins successfully defended her thesis "Best of Both Worlds." Congratulations on this great achievement! 👏 #PhDDefense #AcademicLife #Methods

Super proud of 4 brilliant PhD candidates I (co)supervise who will present at Oslo University!🌟 They will showcase their research on how genetics and environment shape children’s learning and behaviour. 📅 14 March www.uv.uio.no/create/engli... Bring lunch—join us for informal discussions afterward

📢New publication from our colleagues at BioPsy! 🔗Link to the paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

New paper by the talented Austin van Asselt: EWAS of asthma polygenic burden in the Netherlands Twin Register @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/15...

🎉 Here’s a huge shoutout to our BioPsy colleagues for their recent work as a part of @stress-in-action.bsky.social

📢ICYM: At the @stress-in-action.bsky.social Stress-NL symposium held on Jan 30! Eco De Geus presented on the effects of fitness training on physiological stress-reactivity

Also, exciting new findings from our colleague @alandvreugd.bsky.social reveal that social jetlag has little impact on happiness! A fresh perspective on sleep-wake rhythms and wellbeing. Check out the press release for more details. #ScienceForThePeople vu.nl/en/news/2025...

This month in the BioPsy department… We had a new session of the #BioPsyColloquia, with a guest speaker on a very interesting topic! Dr. Athina Vidaki from Maastricht University presented on “Forensic epigenomics: Can DNA methylation solve crimes?”. Thank you for joining us!

🎉 Thanks to @grandegerman.bsky.social, @melbylervag.bsky.social, @dramland.bsky.social @spedaims.bsky.social, @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social, CREATE Research Centre 🌟https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.14107 (6/6)

🚀 New paper by @madhurbsingh.bsky.social on smoking & DNA methylation via twin-based MR using @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social data! Supervised by Mike Neale, @jennyvandongen.bsky.social, & Conor Dolan. Co-authors: @dlapato.bsky.social, @charlesbreeze.bsky.social. 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s106...

What an amazing global achievement! The largest GWAS of MDD to date (5M individuals!) finds 697 unique genetic assocations and reveals known and novel biological processes and pharmacological targets. Such an honor to be a part of this. #depression #genetics @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social

Last but not least, last Wednesday 18th we had the annual Christmas drinks! Many thanks to Santa’s elves for organizing such a nice evening. Happy holidays and see you next year with new things to share!

On December 17th we attended the last session of the BioPsy colloquia for this year. Bruno presented “Genetics of Videogaming”. Thomas presented “Sex differences in autism”. Thanks for sharing your work. We can’t wait to see how these projects advance.

On December 6th we had our Away Day in Zaandam, where the topic was “Societal impact”. We had very interesting talks and discussions. We will keep you updated on the things coming up next year!

On December 4th we had another session of our BioPsy colloquia. This time, Elsje (@drelsje.bsky.social) and Camiel presented their work. We listened to talks about “Educational Genetics” and “Trusted Upload and Linked Procedure”. Very interesting topics! Thank you for joining.

On December 3rd we attended the GENE Amsterdam day where many of out BioPsy researchers presented their work. Thank you for organizing such a beautiful event. It is always nice to meet with other researchers and see what they are doing. You can read more here 👇🏻

This month a lot of things happened, and from the BioPsy department, we would like to do a recap just before the break. Happy holidays everyone! 🎅🏻

From now on, Susanne Bruins from @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social will be co-managing the #GENEAmsterdam socials! Reach out to her or @margotvdweijer.bsky.social if you have any updates with respect to your scientific output, awards, outreach, etc. ✨