Personal Page | dr. Elleke Tissink
Elleke is trained as a neuroscientist (MSc 2018) and a geneticist (PhD 2023) and aims to contribute meaningfully to the broader understanding of genetic influences on brain function and mental health, ultimately paving the way for more effective interventions and treatments.
Her doctoral studies, conducted at the Department of Complex Trait Genetics of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, delved into the intersection of genetics and neuroimaging. Utilizing population databases comprising MRI and genotype information, she discovered genetic variants responsible for individual differences in various brain characteristics such as cerebellar volume or network functional connectivity. Her doctoral thesis also included studies aimed at exploring the genetic relationship between neuroimaging-derived phenotypes and brain-related disorders.
Currently, Elleke works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, where her research concentrates on elucidating the genetic overlap and differences between anxiety & stress-related disorders, and insomnia.
#Neuroimaging-genetics #Neuroscience #Genome-Wide Association Studies #Gene-environment
Key publications
- Tissink, E.P., Shadrin, A.A., van der Meer, D., Parker, N., Hindley, G., Roelfs, D., Frei, O., Fan, C.C., Nagel, M., Nærland, T., Budisteanu, M., Djurovic, S., Westlye, L.T., van den Heuvel, M.P., Posthuma, D., Kaufmann, T., Dale, A.M. & Andreassen, O.A. (2024). Abundant pleiotropy across neuroimaging modalities identified through a multivariate genome-wide association study. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46817-4
- Tissink, E.P., Werme, J., de Lange, S.C., Savage, J. E., Wei, Y., de Leeuw, C.A., Nagel, M., Posthuma, D. & van den Heuvel, M.P. (2023). The genetic architectures of functional and structural connectivity properties within cerebral resting-state networks. eNeuro, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0242-22.2023
- Tissink, E.P., de Lange, S.C., Savage, J.E., Wightman, D.P., Kelly, K.M., Nagel, M., van den Heuvel, M.P. & Posthuma, D. (2022). Genome-wide association study of cerebellar volume provides insights into heritable mechanisms underlying brain development and mental health. Communications Biology, 5(1), 710. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03672-7
- Tissink, E.P. (2023). United efforts: Combining neuroimaging and genetics to unravel the human brain. [PhD-Thesis – Research and graduation internal, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam]. https://doi.org/10.5463/thesis.269
Grants and awards
De Drie Lichten 2022
Simons Foundation 2022
Early Career Investigator Program of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics Poster Award 2021
Scholten-Cordes Fund 2018