https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4121-8631My work as an epidemiologist focuses on environmental exposures and their link
to the development of adverse health outcomes, including suboptimal pregnancy and birth
outcomes, as well as psychopathology. I am particularly interested in reproductive events,
including pregnancy and menopause. I have been instrumental in setting up two separate
birth cohorts, and have conducted analyses in several existing birth cohorts to study the
outcomes of early life exposure to, for example, maternal mental illness, medication,
phthalates, and inflammation. I have also applied cognitive-neurophysiological and
genetically sensitive longitudinal designs to study risk and protective factors for
psychopathology, and the biological mechanisms underlying it, in large-scale national
health and twin registries. My research is widely cited, including outside of the academic
context, and has been recognised consistently for its excellence and innovation by internal
and external funding bodies, including the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative,
the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
the National Institute of Health, the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation
in Research and Higher Education, and the Mount Sinai Transdisciplinary Center on Early
Environmental Exposures.
My MSc thesis focused on establishing the genetic and environmental influences on the developmental relationship between ADHD symptoms and IQ in adolescents.
During my PhD, I examined the association of ADHD with the environmental risk and protective factors preterm birth and exercise to elucidate the complex interplay between genotype and environment from which mental disorders likely result. For some of that work, I collaborated with Dr Henrik Larsson at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm to investigate the effects of physical activity in late adolescence on ADHD symptoms in early adulthood using data from the Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development. My research has also included a cross-disorder comparison between ADHD and bipolar disorder using quantitative EEG in order to explore biomarkers, which may aid clinical differentiation of these disorders.
For my first postdoctoral position, I worked on a multi-site European Commission–funded randomised control trial called CoCA to establish the effect sizes of bright light therapy and exercise, known to modulate circadian rhythm and dopaminergic transmission, in adolescents and young adults with ADHD targeting general health improvement and ADHD symptoms, as well as the prevention of obesity and depressive symptoms. Other research projects included the investigation of the molecular basis for the association between cognitive performance and ADHD as a clinical disorder using polygenic risk score analysis, and the study of preterm birth as a risk factor for cognitive-neurophysiological impairments associated with ADHD.
During my second postdoctoral position, I coordinated a pilot project examining how common environmental exposures in a woman’s everyday environment, including phthalates, acetaminophen and antidepressant medication, may affect fetal and child (neuro)development. I further I initiated investigations of psychopathology in understudied population, including a study into the risk for psychopathology following menopause using Swedish national health registry data and a study of trauma, daily stressors of resettlement and resilience in the refugee population.
As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, I have been instrumental in the conception and execution of a prospective longitudinal pregnancy cohort at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in NYC to establish the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on maternal and child outcomes. I am particularly interested in exploring the extent to which COVID-19 and the ongoing pandemic disproportionately impacts pregnant women from underserved communities and their children. I am further continuing to pursue the study of perinatal and female reproductive (mental) health using large-scale international data sets employing epidemiological methods. Additionally, I am continuing to work on understanding the effects of common prenatal exposures on fetal and child (neuro)development in large-scale longitudinal datasets using a range of imaging modalities (e.g., 3D ultrasound and EEG).
During my PhD, I examined the association of ADHD with the environmental risk and protective factors preterm birth and exercise to elucidate the complex interplay between genotype and environment from which mental disorders likely result. For some of that work, I collaborated with Dr Henrik Larsson at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm to investigate the effects of physical activity in late adolescence on ADHD symptoms in early adulthood using data from the Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development. My research has also included a cross-disorder comparison between ADHD and bipolar disorder using quantitative EEG in order to explore biomarkers, which may aid clinical differentiation of these disorders.
For my first postdoctoral position, I worked on a multi-site European Commission–funded randomised control trial called CoCA to establish the effect sizes of bright light therapy and exercise, known to modulate circadian rhythm and dopaminergic transmission, in adolescents and young adults with ADHD targeting general health improvement and ADHD symptoms, as well as the prevention of obesity and depressive symptoms. Other research projects included the investigation of the molecular basis for the association between cognitive performance and ADHD as a clinical disorder using polygenic risk score analysis, and the study of preterm birth as a risk factor for cognitive-neurophysiological impairments associated with ADHD.
During my second postdoctoral position, I coordinated a pilot project examining how common environmental exposures in a woman’s everyday environment, including phthalates, acetaminophen and antidepressant medication, may affect fetal and child (neuro)development. I further I initiated investigations of psychopathology in understudied population, including a study into the risk for psychopathology following menopause using Swedish national health registry data and a study of trauma, daily stressors of resettlement and resilience in the refugee population.
As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, I have been instrumental in the conception and execution of a prospective longitudinal pregnancy cohort at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in NYC to establish the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on maternal and child outcomes. I am particularly interested in exploring the extent to which COVID-19 and the ongoing pandemic disproportionately impacts pregnant women from underserved communities and their children. I am further continuing to pursue the study of perinatal and female reproductive (mental) health using large-scale international data sets employing epidemiological methods. Additionally, I am continuing to work on understanding the effects of common prenatal exposures on fetal and child (neuro)development in large-scale longitudinal datasets using a range of imaging modalities (e.g., 3D ultrasound and EEG).