About L.A.E.M. (Lisanne) van Houtum, PhD
Introduction
Current research interests and goals
I am working as a postdoctoral researcher within Prof. dr. Neeltje van Haren’s lab at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology Unit of Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s hospital. Currently, I am involved in multiple projects, i.e., the FAMILY consortium, the PANDA-study, and All in the family? to investigate the risk for and resilience against intergenerational transmission of psychopathology in high-risk offspring from a (perinatal) (neuro)developmental perspective. In the long run, I hope to contribute to a better understanding of how psychopathology develops, how it can be prevented, and how we can support at-risk families over the course of development, ultimately leading to better outcomes for both children and their families.
Previous work
I completed a master's degree in neuroscience and have gained extensive research experience in various labs, focused on the role of the brain in psychopathology in adolescents. As part of my doctoral work, I gained expertise in multimodal family research, where I particularly focused on identifying (dysfunctional) neural mechanisms underlying social evaluations and self-views from a parent-adolescent perspective using ecologically valid functional MRI tasks, which may relate to (daily) parent-adolescent interactions as well as adolescent depression.
Field(s) of expertise
In PANDA co-create, we conduct a qualitative study to get insights into how (future) parents with severe mental illness perceive risk and resilience around mental illness in their (future) children, and their needs for counselling, care and research. In the All in the family? project, we focus on the role of life events in emerging psychopathology in offspring and siblings at familial high- and low-risk for mental illness.
Education and career
- PhD, Clinical Psychology, Leiden University (promotion date: 19 september 2023)
- Doctoral thesis: Exploring the self in adolescent depression: Neural mechanisms underlying social evaluations and self-views from a parent-adolescent perspective
- MSc Biomedical Sciences: Neurobiology track, University of Amsterdam, 2012–2014
- BSc Psychobiology: Psychology track, University of Amsterdam, 2009–2012
Publications
Teaching activities
Past: Bottom-up Open Science Education project. During doctoral work: (thesis) supervision of >20 clinical psychology master students and research assistants in writing and conducting clinical research.
Scholarships, grants, and awards
- Stichting Vrienden van het Sophia Fund (€300.000) to hire a PhD conducting the project ‘All in the family? The role of life events in emerging psychopathology in offspring and siblings at familial high- and low-risk for mental illness’ (main applicant, 2025).
- EUR / Erasmus MC Open and Responsible Science Award (€2.500) category Open Education, awarded for the BOSE project (co-applicant, 2024).
- Stichting Erasmus Trustfonds (€10.000) to conduct a qualitative study to get insights into how (future) parents with severe mental illness perceive risk and resilience around mental illness in their (future) children, and their needs for counselling, care and research (main applicant, 2023).
- Open science fund (€50.000) Bottom-up Open Science Education (BOSE) for PhDs in medical and life sciences across the Netherlands, Dutch Research Council (NWO), (co-applicant, 2023).
- KNAW Ter Meulen Grant for pediatric medicine (€8.700) to cover a scientific research project abroad, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), (main applicant, 2021).
Research projects
- PANDA-study
- PANDA co-create
- FAMILY consortium
- All in the family?
My Groups
- Van Haren lab, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology
