Research

I am an Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science at Roskilde University in the Department of Science and the Environment. My research focuses on using genetic, bioinformatic, and epidemiological tools to better understand human disease.

Both environmental and genetic factors contribute to an individual’s characteristics in different ways. I am especially interested in whether genetic factors are deterministic and how we can use them to predict disease risk. To address these questions, I work with large national biobanks such as UK Biobank, FinnGen, the Copenhagen Hospital Biobank (CHB) and the Danish Blood Donor Study (DBDS), often in combination with electronic health care registers. Together these resources make it possible to study how genetic and epidemiological factors shape disease risk in whole populations.

Current projects in my group span several levels of precision medicine. In major depressive disorder (MDD), I contribute to large genome wide association studies that distinguish early onset and late onset major depressive disorder, revealing partially distinct genetic architectures and using polygenic risk scores to predict severe outcomes such as suicide attempts in the years following diagnosis. In thyroid disease, I work with longitudinal biobank data, detailed clinical trajectories, and genetics to build mathematical models of thyroid hormone regulation and to understand why some people with hypothyroidism remain symptomatic despite standard levothyroxine treatment, with the long term goal of supporting personalized dosing strategies.  In epilepsy, I collaborate with clinicians to study therapeutic drug monitoring of anti seizure medications; for example, I have analyzed perampanel concentrations in children and adolescents to quantify pharmacokinetic variability, understand the impact of age and co medication, and relate exposure to seizure outcomes and tolerability. 

I was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For four years, I investigated the genetic architecture of epilepsy in a mouse research panel (collaborative cross), identifying genetic risk factors using DNA and RNA sequencing data.

Teaching

CURRENT TEACHING

Genetics
Bioinformatics 
Applied Data Science and Visualization
Human Biology and Evolution