Rebecka Keijser

About me

I´m doing my postdoctoral training in the Tamimmies lab under the umbrella of Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders at Karolinska Institutet (KIND), Department of Women's and Children's Health (KBH), Karolinska Institutet (KI).

I am furthermore the leader of the Policy and Funding Focus Group at the Junior Faculty at Karolinska Institutet, where my vision is to work towards a more stable and transparent environment for early career researchers. 

I earned my PhD in neuroscience at Uppsala University investigating the influence of family environment, and Candidate Gene–environment interactions on depressive symptoms among adolescents and young adults in Sweden. 

Research description

My research interests include the genetic- and environmental influences on different neurodevelopmental disorders, mainly autism and developmental language disorder but also other speech- and language related traits as well as other psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety. The environmental pathways are mainly focused on the family environment e.g., parenting styles, parental mental health or early life stress.

I´m furthermore part of the project DLD - Sweden where we aim to collect data from adolescents and adults with DLD. 

Education

2021 PhD., in medical science. Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala University. Thesis title: Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents and Young Adults: Psychometrics and Influence of Family Environment, and cG×E Interactions.

2018 Licentiate degree in medical science. Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala University. Thesis title: Depressive Symptoms among Adolescents: Evaluation & Influence of Parental Dimensions.

2016 Master of Science in psychology. University of Kristianstad and Stockholm University. Thesis title: Olfactory Functions in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

2012 Bachelor’s in psychology. The School of Health, Care and Social Welfare. Thesis title: Attitudes towards non suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in relation to empathy.