Personal Page | Prof. dr. Karin Verweij

I am a behavioural geneticist with strong interest in the genetic epidemiology of substance use and mental illness. Much of my research focuses on the question why some individuals are more susceptible than others to develop an addiction or mental illness. Increased knowledge of genetic etiology will contribute to early detection and prevention of mental illness and should guide personalised treatment.

I completed my PhD in 2012 at the Genetic Epidemiology laboratory of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia, under supervision of Nick Martin and Sarah Medland. I have since worked as geneticist at various universities, both in the Netherlands and abroad (Sweden, Australia). In 2018 I was appointed Professor of ‘Genetics in Psychiatry’ at Amsterdam UMC (University of Amsterdam). Throughout my career I led several large-scale genetics projects. In particular, I am one of the PIs of the International Cannabis Consortium, a project with >20 contributing cohorts, aimed at unravelling the genetic architecture underlying cannabis use.

Prof. dr. Karin Verweij

Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Psychiatry , Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam

#Psychiatric Genetics #Substance Use #Imaging Genetics #Evolutionary Psychology

Key publications

  1. Abdellaoui, A. & Verweij, K.J.H. (2021). Dissecting Polygenic Signals from Genome-Wide Association Studies on Human Behavior. Nature Human Behavior, 5; 686-694. PDF Link

 

  1. Treur, J.L., Munafò, M.R., Logtenberg, E., Wiers, R.W., & Verweij, K.J.H. (2021). Using Mendelian randomization analysis to better understand the relationship between substance use and mental health: A systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 51 (10); 1593-1624.
    PDF Link

 

  1. Marees, A.T., Smit, D.J.A., Abdellaoui, A., Nivard, M.G., van den Brink, W., Denys, D., Galama, T., Verweij, K.J.H.*, & Derks, E.M.* (2021). Genetic correlates of socio-economic status influence the pattern of shared heritability across mental health traits. Nature Human Behaviour, 5; 1065–1073. *Joint last author.
    PDF Link

 

  1. Ganna, A.*, Verweij, K.J.H.*, Nivard, M.G., Maier, R., Wedow, R., Busch, A.S., Abdellaoui, A., Guo, S., Sathirapongsasuti, J.F., 23andMe Research Team, Lichtenstein, P., Lundström, S., Långström, N., Auton, A., Harris, K.M., Beecham, G.W., Martin, E.R., Sanders, A.R., Perry, J.R.B., Neale, B.M., & Zietsch, B.P. (2019). Large-scale GWAS reveals insights into the genetic architecture of same-sex sexual behavior. Science, 365 (6456); eaat7693.
    PDF Link

 

  1. Pasman, J.A.*, Verweij, K.J.H.*, Gerring, Z., Stringer, S., Sanchez-Roige, S., Treur, J.L., Abdellaoui, A., Nivard, M., Baselmans, B.M.L., Ong, J.-S., Ip, H.F., van der Zee, M.D., Bartels, M., Day, F.R., Fontanillas, P., Elson, S.L., the 23andMe Research Team, de Wit, H., Davis, L.K., MacKillop, J., International Cannabis Consortium, Derringer, J.L., Branje, S., Hartman, C.A., Heath, A.C., Madden, P.A.F., Mägi, R., Meeus, W., Montgomery, G.W., Oldehinkel, A.J., Pausova, Z., Ramos-Quiroga, J.A., Paus, T., Ribases, M., Kaprio, J., Boks, M.P., Bell, J.T., Spector, T.D., Gelernter, J., Boomsma, D.I., Martin, N.G., MacGregor, S., Perry, J.R.B., Palmer, A.A., Posthuma, D., Munafò, M.R., Gillespie, N.A., Derks, E.M., & Vink, J.M. (2018). GWAS of lifetime cannabis use reveals new risk loci, genetic overlap with psychiatric traits, and a causal influence of schizophrenia. Nature Neuroscience, 21 (9); 1161-1170.
    PDF Link

All publications

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