It came as a really nice surprise to us to see our OCD EWAS featured in a commentary in Biological Psychiatry! Many thanks to Prof. Grünblatt and Prof. Walitza for highlighting our work. www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S000...

Epigenetic Signatures and Sex-Specific Architecture in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severely debilitating mental disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts and repetitive compulsive actions, exhibiting diverse phenotypes (1). This disorder i...

biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com

I don’t think you can go from PhD defence (Fri) to conference (Mon) any faster than that 😄 ##WCPG26

#PhDone 🎉🎉🎉

very happy about this one 😊

Neuropsychopharmacology@npp-journal.bsky.social · last mo.

#TWiNPP In a large epigenetic study of psychotherapy response in OCD, baseline, stable, & longitudinal DNA methylation signals were associated with clinical improvement; many of them were genetically influenced. Findings highlight trait-like markers and dynamic change / @kirahoeffler.bsky.social

The #WCPG26 countdown hits a little different this year, as I’m defending my PhD just 3 days before flying to the conference Two weeks until WCPG26 = a little less than two weeks until my defence! 😱 @ispg.bsky.social

Berlin 💔🏳️‍🌈

🚨New paper alert!🚨 The bipolar disorder (BD) meta epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) by Tesfaye & colleagues is Out now in eBioMedicine 🔗bit.ly/4sGX9O6 🧵1/5

🚨Our SECOND new paper alert for today 🚨 ✨Check out the new large OCD-case control EWAS published by @kirahoeffler.bsky.social & colleagues ✨ 🔗bit.ly/4x9c5qx 1/5 🧵

#HappyPride from Bergen, Norway 🏳️‍🌈

POV Du bist das Bundesforschungsministerium & schaffst es nach fast 5 Jahren #IchBinHanna, im Referentenentwurf fürs #WissZeitVG die Postdoc-Phase noch schlechter zu regeln als die Ampel, indem Du einfach alles so erwiesenermaßen schlecht lässt wie bisher. Aber Hauptsache Raketen-Memes mit Doro! 🚀👍

Jan-Martin Wiarda@jmwiarda.bsky.social · 5mo ago

EXKLUSIV im Wiarda-Blog: BMFTR legt seinen mit Spannung erwarteten WissZeitVG-Referentenentwurf vor Vieles ist drin aus dem alten Ampelpaket, doch es gibt eine Lücke, mit der die meisten gerechnet hatten. Die Details im Wiarda-Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2026/05...

Been training for this moment my whole life.

What does accelerated biological aging actually mean for children? Can we measure it with algorithms only trained in adults? And do different biomarkers of aging measure the same thing? Find out at my #SOBP2026 talk tomorrow afternoon 🧬🧠

Ahhh, I’m super excited to see this one out in the press!

Biological Psychiatry@biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 6mo ago

There are dozens of differentially methylated positions and regions associated with OCD, with many linked to brain signaling and immune function, and some showing sex differences.

new #preprint: our epigenetic study on psychotherapy response in OCD is available on medRxiv - includes longitudinal analyses and integration with genetic data. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Epigenetic Markers of Response to Psychotherapy in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Background Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a widely used treatment for mental disorders, yet the biological mechanisms underlying its effects, and the factors contributing to response, remain po...

medrxiv.org

Writing your PhD thesis in a windowless office with no daylight is not for the weak.

I had the opportunity to present my PhD research at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo today :)

Out earlier this week in @natgenet.nature.com: GWAS of major anxiety disorders in 122,341 European-ancestry cases identifying 58 loci (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) Awesome work, and great news for the anx genetics community — each @pgcgenetics.bsky.social paper seeds 100s more papers!

Genome-wide association study of major anxiety disorders in 122,341 European-ancestry cases identifies 58 loci and highlights GABAergic signaling - Nature Genetics

Genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies 58 independent risk loci for major anxiety disorders among individuals of European ancestry and implicates GABAergic signaling as a potential mechanism...

nature.com

Happy and thankful for this award!☺️

The #ECNP Roadmap Meeting on #PrecisionPsychiatry wrapped up yesterday ✨ Experts across science, clinical practice, regulation, industry & patient advocacy explored how to move #biomarkers from research to real‑world impact 🔍 Inspiring discussions and clear next steps 🚀 www.ecnp.eu/roadmap-meeting

🥁🎇✨ ... first up is KIRA HÖFFLER @kirahoeffler.bsky.social from the #UniversityofBergen in Norway and #McLeanHospital in Boston ! So tell us, Kira, what do you do in #functionalgenomics and @pgc_fg ?🤔 Any #funfacts #genetics 🐝❓ 🧵3/3

The human brain goes through distinct phases in life, with turning points at ages 9, 32, 66 & 83, scientists have revealed. ~4,000 people up to the age of 90 had scans to reveal the connections between their brain cells. We "peak" in our early 30s ... 🧪🧠 #neuroskyence www.bbc.com/news/article...

Four pivotal ages in your brain's development revealed in new scientific study

Brain scans on thousands of people reveal the dramatic shifts the brain goes through between birth and death.

bbc.com

✨Hello folks!✨ We're back in your feed with an amazing paper spotlight by @kirahoeffler.bsky.social & colleagues📰🔦 "Optimizing genetic ancestry adjustment in DNA methylation studies: a comparative analysis of approaches" 🔗http://bit.ly/49syndi Read our overview below! 🧵1/6

New method for DNA methylation studies 🧬: EpiAnceR+ improves ancestry adjustment without requiring genotyping data, while removing technical and biological noise. Easy to use in existing R pipelines. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Optimizing genetic ancestry adjustment in DNA methylation studies: a comparative analysis of approaches - Epigenetics & Chromatin

Background Genetic ancestry is an important factor to account for in DNA methylation studies because genetic variation influences DNA methylation patterns. One approach uses principal components (PCs)...

link.springer.com

Curious whether response to psychotherapy in OCD can be predicted using clinical and DNA methylation data? Come see Poster 1️⃣ at #WCPG2025. I’ll be presenting our first machine learning findings!

Back at my favourite conference #WCPG2025 - this time in a slightly different setting (an all-inclusive beach hotel) #cancun #mexico @ispg.bsky.social

The Biological Psychiatry family of journals is now officially on Bluesky! Follow us for the latest research in psychiatric neuroscience, cognitive neuroimaging, and global open science from our three leading journals.

Inspiring AI Cures Conference at MIT with stunning views of beautiful Boston.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

A methylome-wide association study of major depression with out-of-sample case–control classification and trans-ancestry comparison - Nature Mental Health

The authors report a meta-analysis of methylome-wide association studies, identifying 15 significant CpG sites linked to major depression, revealing associations with inflammatory markers and suggesti...

nature.com

I find it somewhat disappointing that medRxiv does not accommodate the use of the "ö" in my surname and instead only allows the internationalized spelling.