I am a senior researcher co-leading the Psychiatric Genetic Epidemiology (PaGE) group at Nic Waals Institute, and researcher in the Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. I am supported by grants from Helse Sør-Øst (MoBa-Psych [2018508], MoBa-Dev [2020023], and MoBa-Eat [2019097]).
I am interested in using genetic and genomic data to investigate the development and epidemiology of common health problems. In my most recent work, I have used large, population-based samples to study mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of psychiatric problems, such as depression. In general, I am keen to explore the possibilities associated with combining different types of datasets and using statistical modelling approaches to study disease-relevant inter-individual variation.
In addition to empirical work, I have a strong focus on reproducibility and transparency. Within our research group, I am leading several infrastructural projects to improve the robustness and reproducibility of the handling of both phenotypic and genetic data for team members and collaborators.
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Bio:
Laurie Hannigan is a researcher based at the Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital in Oslo, Norway, also working with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. He completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Southampton, in the UK, followed by a master’s in Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry at King’s College London. He obtained his PhD in Behavior Genetics from King’s in 2018 under the supervision of Prof. Thalia Eley and Dr. Tom McAdams. After a short postdoctoral position at the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing in 2018, he moved to Oslo to focus on genetic epidemiological work with the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort study (MoBa). His research interests include studying within-family transmission of risk for psychiatric disorders, the aetiology and development of emotional and behavioural problems, factors influencing the emergence of neurodevelopmental conditions, patterns and consequences of comorbidity and multimorbidity, and methodological issues in the application of developmental genetic epidemiological approaches to birth cohort and population registry data sources.
