Miriam Mosing

About me

I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Neuroscience Department at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.  My main research interest is how genes and environment play together to produce individual differences in quality of life throughout lifespan as well as in expertise. Why do some people fare better than others throughout life and in old age in terms of cognitive, mental and somatic health? Why are some people more successful and become experts in a given field? Understanding how genetic predispositions interplay with environmental factors will reveal the nature of phenotypic associations observed in daily life, which will not only allow us to identify truly causal and modifiable risk/protective factors (relevant environments), but will ultimately also help us to identify those who are at greatest risk or may benefit most from interventions.

 

 

Research description

Major projects: 

• Gene-environment interplay underlying mental and somatic health related outcomes throughout lifetime
• Gene-environment interplay underlying the acquisition of expertise and skill learning using music as a model behaviour

I am particularly interested in the effect of potentially modifiable risk factors (environments) including cultural and social engagement, SES and education, diet, stress related factors, and sports and music training on a variety of health related outcomes including depression, anxiety, stress-related diseases, cognitive (general intelligence) and age-related somatic outcomes (dementia, cardiovascular disease, and mortality). My research aims at identifying causal environmental influences potentially suitable as starting points for interventions. 

Sub-projects: 

GE interplay underlying

• Cultural engagement in midlife and health outcomes and mortality late in life
• Birth-characteristics and health outcomes
• Modifiable risk factors for dementia
• Effects of loneliness and social isolation on health and mortality 
• Stressful life events and mental and somatic health outcomes 
• Subjective well-being and quality of life late in life
• SES-related factors and health outcomes

 

 

Education

Dr. Mosing is a behavioural geneticist who conducted her PhD research at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and the University of Queensland, Australia. Her PhD thesis centred on the genetics of complex behaviour, with a particular focus on Quality of Life and health in the second half of life. After completing her PhD (end 2011), she held postdoc positions at the Neuroscience and the Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Departments at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, before she became an Assistant Professor in 2016 and an Associate Professor (Docent) in 2020. Since 2020, Dr. Mosing also holds a senior research fellowship at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia.