Emil Uffelmann

Short CV

Research

I found my way to genetics in a roundabout way. I first did a Bachelor’s in Psychology, where I found a passion for statistics and academia. Subsequently, I switched fields to do a Master’s in Neuroscience, which filled my biology gaps. Now, as a PhD student in statistical genetics at the Complex Trait Genetics department of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, I use statistical methods to study brain-related phenotypes, thus nicely integrating both my Psychology and Neuroscience background.

While my interest in genetics runs deep, it is also broad, which shows in the range of projects I’m working on. I am currently the lead analyst of the Alzheimer’s Disease Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, where I run a large GWAS meta-analysis; I am developing a new approach to make Polygenic Scores more interpretable; and I run a cross-trait analysis of genetic sex differences.

I have also been involved in teaching, mainly in the course Genetics in Neuroscience, coordinated by Danielle Posthuma, where I designed course material, gave lectures, tutored classes, and graded exams.

Highlighted publications

Uffelmann, E., Huang, Q. Q., Munung, N. S., de Vries, J., Okada, Y., Martin, A. R., Martin, H. C., Lappalainen, T., & Posthuma, D. (2021). Genome-wide association studies. Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 1(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-021-00056-9

Uffelmann, E., Leeuw, C. de, & Posthuma, D. (2023). Local Genetic Sex Differences in Quantitative Traits (p. 2023.05.04.539410). bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.04.539410

Uffelmann, E., Posthuma, D., & Peyrot, W. J. (2023). Genome-wide association studies of polygenic risk score-derived phenotypes may lead to inflated false positive rates. Scientific Reports, 13(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29428-9

Uffelmann, E., & Posthuma, D. (2021). Emerging Methods and Resources for Biological Interrogation of Neuropsychiatric Polygenic Signal. Biological Psychiatry, 89(1), 41–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.05.022

Social Media

Twitter: https://twitter.com/euffelmann
Mastodon: https://fediscience.org/@euffelmann

Awards

Genetics Network Amsterdam poster award 2022
University Research Fellowship 2019
Erasmus Mundus Scholarship 2018
Holland Scholarship 2017
Groningen University Fund 2017