Karin Verweij’s research primarily focuses on the role played by heritable factors in substance use and psychiatric symptoms. She investigates, among other things, what genes are important in substance use, the (genetic) link between substance use and psychiatric disorders and the cause of gender differences in psychiatric disorders. Her research contributes to the growth of fundamental knowledge on the evolution, ethology, co-morbidity and progression of psychiatric disorders. The ultimate objective is to translate her research results to a clinical setting and to integrate the acquired knowledge in the diagnosis and personalised treatment of psychiatric complaints.

As professor by special appointment at the UvA, Verweij will mainly contribute to research, education and study programme of the departments of Psychiatry and Translational Genetics.

Verweij is a behavioural geneticist and until the end of 2017 worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University in Nijmegen. She conducted her PhD research (cum laude) 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 cannabis use, personality and sexuality. After completing her PhD, she held postdoc positions at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam), the University of Queensland, Australia, and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Verweij also holds a visiting scientist position at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane.