During the past 10 years I have actively participated in different international research projects. I am participating in an international European research collaboration within the framework of the EU Fp7 programme. These two projects are OTC-SOCIOMED directed from the University of Crete in Greece and a project entitled QUALICOPC directed from the Research Institute NIVEL in Holland. Since 2012 I have also worked as a co-ordinator and liaison in an international research collaboration regarding inequalities of child health entitled EPOCH directed from the McGill University in Montreal, Canada and including Stanford University, USA, York University UK, Erasmus University, Rotterdam Holland as part of the INRICH collaboration (see; http://www.centrelearoback.ca/inrich/)
TWIBS (Twincities IBS Study)
I continued to study the disease IBS in cooperation with the new research contacts I made during the work with my thesis. For this purpose, I began to build up my own research group called TWIBS (Twin Cities IBS Study) in the Twin Cities Research Group which is an interdisciplinary research group. I am the project leader for TWIBS group, which also includes gastroenterologists, statisticians, physiotherapists and a geneticist. TWIBS is a comprehensive data set with IBS patients and controls collected from health centres in the county of Östergötland.
EPOCH
I have participated in the research network EPOCH, which includes researchers from the University of Montreal Canada, Stanford University, USA, York University, UK, Erasmus University Netherlands and our research group for the ABIS-study. I am responsible (liaison) for the Swedish participation in this international collaboration.
ABIS-study
I am a member of the research group for the ABIS-study, which is headed by Emeritus Professor Johnny Ludvigsson. ABIS is a prospective study of 17,000 children followed from birth with recurrent questionnaires and biological sampling (the single largest biobank in the US consists of biomaterials from ABIS). For two years, I have been responsible for the extensive dataset collected over 15 years. Through the ABIS study I became involved in other international collaborations apart from EPOCH with Sir Michael Marmot and his institution UCL Institute of Health Equity and Research in London, which recently resulted in an article where I was responsible for the Swedish contribution.
Epigenetics – stress
I am involved in a recently established interdisciplinary research group in the new field of epigenetics, where collaboration takes place across faculties. The idea is that together we will start different studies of how early exposure to stress can affect disease risk between generations. Studies will be done in humans, but also laboratory mice, chickens and dogs. The new method of measuring stress through cortisol in hair will be applied together with genetic testing.
