Stephanie Francoise Claire Le Hellard

Stilling

Professor, Professor in Human Genetics

Tilhørighet

Forskning

I am a Professor in Human Genetics at the department of Clinical Sciences, Facutly of Medicine. I am also a core researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT centre of excellence https://www.med.uio.no/norment/english/) and the Bergen Centre for Brain Plasticity (https://helse-bergen.no/en/bergen-center-for-brain-plasticity)

Together with the members of my group we are focusing our research on the Epigenetics of Mental Disorders and their treatment (incl. treatment response).

Most of mental disorders are multifactorial in nature, which means that several genetic risk factors combined with environmental risk factors increase the risk to develop a disorder.

Epigenetic modifications, are changes added to the DNA (without changing the DNA sequence) that can regulate the expression of genes, for example the addition of methylation groups on the DNA (aka DNA methylation). Some of these modifications can be dependent of the genetic background, on the biological development (age or sex) or influenced by the environment (e.g. risk factors or treatment). We are especially interested in DNA methylation differences between patients with mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, OCD... and controls.  DNA methylation differences are also observed under exposure to some environmental factors such as smoking, stress, cannabis use, etc... There are also some studies that have reported how treatment with either antidepressant or with cognitive therapy can be associated with differences in DNA methylation.

Thus the aim of our research is to identify epigenetic factors associated with the different aspects of psychiatric disorders: the risk to develop such disorders and how to treat them. 

Specifically our projects are aimed at: 

  • Investigating epigenetic modifications in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders.
  • Molecular mechanisms of exposure to several environmental risk in patients with psychosis (cannabis, trauma, asphyxia, ...).
  • Identification of regions of differential methylation across psychiatric disorders and through the life span.
  • DNA methylation changes associated with treatment and treatment response in OCD, psychosis and depression.

 

The group currently consist of 1 senior researcher, 2 postdocs, 3 PhD students, 1 forskerlinje student, 1 bio-engineer and myself.

 

I am also project leader for the BRY.DEG2020 study which we intiated under the Covid19 outbreak in order to follow up what would be the effect of the epidemic and the restrictions taken, on the mental health of young adults (see www.uib.no/brydeg2020)

Undervisning

I teach Genetics and Evolution to medical students in their 3rd semester, at the Faculty of Medicine, UiB.

I teach a MSc course in Human Genetics (HUMGEN301) at the Faculty of Medicine, UiB.

I also participate in the IGSIN course for PhD students, UiB, and the Master course in Genetics of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oslo.

Publikasjoner
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Poster
Errata
Doktorgradsavhandling
Leserinnlegg
Sammendrag/abstract
Vitenskapelig oversiktsartikkel/review

Se en full oversikt over publikasjoner i Cristin

See my ORCID page:  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8085-051X