WELCOME TO FEMILAB
| We are moving the field of women's health research forward |

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Using state-of-the art computational modelling and biostatistics for neuroimaging (MRI) data, we investigate how biological, genetic, and psychosocial factors influence female brain structure and function throughout life.

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT AND AGEING
By establishing normal brain development and ageing trajectories, we can identify individuals who deviate from the norm, and assess factors that impact their brain health. For this, we use Machine Learning and brain data from MRI to estimate brain age, a measure of 'how old' an individual's brain is compared to their chronological age.

HORMONES AND PREGNANCY
Puberty, pregnancy, and menopause involve hormone and immune-system changes that are linked to changes in brain structure. In these transitional life phases, some women have a higher risk for diseases and mental disorders. We assess biological, genetic, and psychosocial factors contributing to health and disease at these sensitive life stages.

CARDIOMETABOLIC HEALTH
Risk factors such as being overweight or underweight can have negative effects on brain structure and function. For some individuals, the menopause transition involves increased risk for cardiometabolic diseases and dementia. We study how the associations between the body and the brain are influenced by hormonal changes.
TEAM

Dr Ann-Marie de Lange
PI/HEAD OF FEMILAB
CHUV, Lausanne / Uni Oslo / Uni Oxford
PhD (Cognitive Neuroscience), Cand. psychol (clinical Psychologist)
.jpeg)
Louise Schindler
PhD CANDIDATE
CHUV, Lausanne/Uni Oslo
MSc (Translational Neurosience)
.jpg)
Dr Sivaniya Subramaniapillai
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW
CHUV, Lausanne/Uni Oslo
PhD (Cognitive neuroscience)
ASSOCIATED TEAM MEMBERS
.jpg)
Dr Claudia Barth
SENIOIR RESEARCHER / PI FemHealth project
Diakonhjemmet Hospital/Uni Oslo
PhD (Neuroscience, Neurobiology)

Dr Ananthan Ambikairajah
LECTURER
ananthanambikairajah.com
University of Canberra
PhD (Neuroscience, Neurobiology)
COLLABORATORS
FemiLab is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and based at Laboratoire de recherche en neuroimagerie (LREN), Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). We collaborate closely with researchers across several institutions in Europe and abroad.
LATEST NEWS

We're very happy to welcome PhD student Hannah Oppenheimer to the team! She'll work with Claudia on the FemHealth project
.jpeg)
FemiLab at the 2023 FemTech summit in Basel! Lot's of inspiring talks and workshops - more info here: https://femtechnology.org/

An honour to be featured in this gem from Sarah McKay - visit her website here: https://drsarahmckay.com/
.jpeg)
Louise had a very productive research stay at University of Oxford's Big Data Institute (BDI) and Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA) spring 2023 - stay tuned for interesting results! We thank drs Anya Topiwala, Sana Suri, Klaus Ebmeier & co for the collaboration, much appreciated!

Sivaniya presented her poster on intersectionality at the OSSD Annual Meeting! Very important perspectives that are often overlooked in health research. Stay tuned for her work on #intersectionality!

We're very happy to welcome Ananthan to the team! See his website for more info: https://ananthanambikairajah.com/

The WNN webinar on family planning in academia was very successful, thanks to all our great speakers! Summary and more info available here: https://www.womensneuronet.com/blog

We're happy to welcome Arielle to the team! Stay tuned for upcoming results from Arielle and Claudia's project 'Linking menopause, history of depression, and proxies of biological aging in the UK Biobank cohort'

Louise and Sivaniya represented FemiLab at the Annual Meeting of the NeuroLeman Network, great work!

The WNN webinar on science communication with Jo Browning and Dr Dan Quintana was really interesting and inspiring, great talks! More info here: https://www.womensneuronet.com/blog

We hosted the WNN kick-off event 'Gender bias in Academia' with Dr Llorens, Ass. Prof. Tzovara, and Dr Suri - great talks and discussions! Info here: https://www.womensneuronet.com/post/event-recap

Ann-Marie featured in the BBC documentary film 'A Mother's Brain' - great work by Melissa Hogenboom (and congrats with two Webby awards; the people's vote and the judges vote)! https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/a-mothers-brain
.jpg)
Claudia interviewed in FemTech! Read it here: https://femtechnology.org/deep-dives/

Ann-Marie had a Keynote talk at the Annual Congress of the Swiss Neurological Society Nov 2021. Great conference - a big thank you to the organisers!

Our editorial for the special issue on women's brain health is now published in Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33383040/

Ann-Marie guests Jodi Pawluwski's podcast ‘Mommy Brain Revisited: the neuroscience of parenting’ - see Jodi's website with links here: https://www.jodipawluski.com/

Women’s NeuroNetwork launches with members across Europa, Canada, and the USA! Want to join us? Click here: https://www.womensneuronet.com/join

Ann-Marie interviewed in the Norwegian science magazine Forskning.no, see link here (text in in Norwegian): https://forskning.no/alzheimers-kjonn-og-samfunn-partner/graviditet-kan-gi-kvinnehjernen-ekstra-beskyttelse/1824646

Our FemiLab 2021 summer project got published in Human Brain Mapping - excellent work by Sivaniya! https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hbm.25882

Very nice research highlight in an 'Inspire the Mind' blog post by Dr Jodi Pawluski - thank you Jodi! https://www.inspirethemind.org/blog/mom-brain-forever
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
-
Pasin, C., Consiglio, C.R., Huisman, J.S., de Lange, A-M.G, Peckham, H., Vallego-Y ̈ague, E., Abela, I., Islander,U., Neuner-Jehle, N., Pujantell, M., Roth, O., Schirmer, M., Tepekule, B., Zeeb, M., Hachfeld, A., Aebi-Popp. K., Kouyos, R., & Bonhoeffer, S. (2023) Sex and gender in infection and immunity: Addressing the bottlenecks from basic science to public health and clinical applications. (Royal Society Open Science)
-
Anatürk, M., Patelc, R., Newby, D., Topiwala, A., de Lange, A-M.G., Cole, J. H., Jansen, M., Ebmeier, K.P., Singh-Manoux, A., Kivimäki, M., & Suri,S. (2023) Development and Validation of a Dementia Risk Score in the UK Biobank and Whitehall II Cohorts. (in press, BMJ Mental Health)
-
Korbmacher, M., Gurholt, T.P., de Lange, A-M.G, van der Meer, D., Beck, D., Eikefjord, E., Lundervold, A., Andreassen, O.A., Westlye, L. & Maximov, I. I. (2023) Bio-psycho-social factors’ associations with brain age: a large-scale UK Biobank diffusion study of 35,749 participants (Frontiers in Psychology)
-
Korbmacher, M., de Lange, A-M.G, van der Meer, D., Beck, D., Eikefjord, E., Lundervold, A., Westlye, L., Andreassen, O.A., & Maximov, I. I. (2023) Brain-wide associations between white matter and age highlight the role of fornix microstructure in brain ageing (Human Brain Mapping).
-
Leonardsen, E.H., Vidal-Piñeiro, D., Roe, J.M., Frei, O., Shadrin, A.A., Iakunchykova, O., de Lange, A-M.G, Kaufmann, T., Andreassen, O.A., Wolfers, T., Westlye, L.T., Wang, Y. (2023) Genetic architecture of brain age and its casual relations with brain and mental disorders (Molecular Psychiatry)
-
Trofimova, O., Latypova, A., DiDomenicantonio, G., Lutti, A., de Lange, A-M.G, Kliegel, M., Stringhini, S., Marques-Vidal, P., Vaucher, J., Vollenweider, P., Strippoli, M.P.F., Preisig, M., Kherif, F., & Draganski, B. (2023) Topography of associations between cardiovascular risk factors and myelin loss in the ageing human brain. Communications Biology
-
Holm, M., Leonardsen, E., Beck D., Dahl, A., Kjelkenes, R., de Lange, A-M.G., & Westlye, L.T. (2023) Linking brain maturation and puberty during early adolescence using longitudinal brain age prediction in the ABCD cohort.
-
Voldsbekk, I., Kjelkenes, R., Wolfers, T., Dahl, A., Lund, M.J., Kaufmann, T., Fernandez-Cabello, S., de Lange, A-M.G., Tamnes, C.K., Andreassen, O.A., Westlye, L.T., Alnæs, D. (2023) Shared pattern of impaired social communication and cognitive ability in the youth brain across diagnostic boundaries.
-
Løchen, A.R., Kolskår, K.K., de Lange, A-M.G., Sneve, M.H., Haatveit B.,, Lagerberg, T.V., Ueland, T., Melle, I., Andreassen, O.A., Westlye, L.T., Alnæs, D. (2023) Visual processing deficits in patients with schizophrenia spectrum and bipolar disorders and associations with psychotic symptoms, and intellectual abilities.
-
Sjøveian Lindseth, L.R., de Lange, A-M.G, van der Meer, D., Agartz I., Westlye, L.T., Tamnes, C. & Barth, C. (2022) Associations between reproductive history, hormone use, APOE ε4 genotype and cognition in middle- to older-aged women from the UK Biobank.
-
van der Meer, D., Gurholt, T.P., Sønderby, I.E., Shadrin, A.A., Hindley, G., Rahman, Z., de Lange, A-M.G, Beck, D., Frei, O., Leinhard, O.D., Linge, J., Simon, R., Westlye, L.T., Halvorsen, S., Karlsen T. H., Kaufmann, & T., Andreassen, O.A. (2022) The link between liver fat and cardiometabolic diseases is highlighted by genome-wide association study of MRI-derived measures of body composition.
-
Schindler, L.S., Subramaniapillai, S., Barth, C., van der Meer, D., Pedersen, M.L., Kaufmann, T., Maximov, I., Linge, J., Dahlqvist Leinhard, O., Beck, D., Gurholt, T.P., Voldsbekk, I., Suri, S., Ebmeier, K.P., Draganski, B., Andreassen, O.A., Westlye, L.T., de Lange, A-M.G. (2022) Associations between abdominal adipose tissue, reproductive span, and brain characteristics in post-menopausal women.
-
Aamodt, E.B., Alnæs, D., de Lange, A-M.G., Aam, S., Schellhorn, T., Saltvedt, I., Beyer, M.K., Westlye, L.T.(2022) Longitudinal brain age prediction and cognitive function after stroke.
-
Leonardsen, E., Peng, H., Kaufmann, T., Agartz, I., Andreassen, O.A., Celius, E.H., Espeseth, T., Harbo, H., Høgestøl, E.A., de Lange, A-M.G., Marquand, A.F., Vidal-Piñeiro, D., Roe, J., Selbæk, G., Sørensen, Ø., Smith, S.M., Westlye, L.T. Wolfers, & T., Wang, Y. (2022) Deep learning models learn general and disease-relevant representations of the ageing brain based on T1-weighted MRI data.
-
de Lange, A-M.G., Anatürk, M.„ Rokicki, J., Han, L.K.M., Franke, K., Alnæs, D., Ebmeier, K., Draganski, B., Kaufmann, T., Westlye, L. T. Hahn, T. & Cole, J. H. (2022) Mind the gap: performance metric evaluation in brain-age prediction.
-
Subramaniapillai, S, Suri, S., Barth, C., Maximov, I. I., Voldsbekk, I., van der Meer, D., Gurholt, T.P., Beck, D., Andreassen O.A., Draganski, B., Ebmeier, K., Westlye, L.T. & de Lange, A-M.G. (2022) Sex- and age-specific associations between cardiometabolic risk and white matter brain age in the UK Biobank cohort.
-
Rokicki, J, Kaufmann, T., de Lange, A-M.G, van der Meer, D., Sartorius, A., Steen, N.E., Schwarz, E., Stein, D., Nærland, T., Andreassen, O.A., Westlye, L.T., & Quintana, D. (2022) Spatio-temporal alterations of oxytocin receptor expression in the human brain across development.
-
Beck, D., de Lange, A-M.G., Alnæs, D., Maximov, I., Pedersen, M. L., Leinhard, O. D., Linge, J., Simon, R.,Richard, G., Ulrichsen, K.M., K.M., Dørum, E., Kolskår, K., Sander, A-M., Winterton, A., Gurholt, T., Kaufmann, T., Stten, N. E., Nordvik, J.E., Andreassen, O.A. & Westlye, L. T. (2022) Adipose tissue distribution from body MRI is associated with cross-sectional and longitudinal brain age in adults.
-
Lund, M., Alnæs, D., de Lange, A-M.G., Andreassen, O.A., Westlye, L.T., & Kaufmann, T. (2021) Brain age prediction using fMRI network coupling in youths and associations with psychiatric symptoms.
-
Beck, D., de Lange, A-M.G., Pedersen, M. L., Alnæs, Maximov, I., Voldsbekk, I., D., Richard, G., Sanders, A-M., Ulrichsen, K.M., Dørum, E., Kolskår, K., Høgestøl, E. A., Steen, N. E., Djurovic, S., Andreassen, O.A., Nordvik, J.E., Kaufmann, T. & Westlye, L. T. (2021) Cardiometabolic risk factors associated with brain age and accelerated brain ageing.
-
Winterton, A, Bettella, F., de Lange, A-M.G., Haram, M., Steen, N.E., Westlye, L.T., Andreassen, O.A., & Quintana, D. (2021) Oxytocin pathway polygenic risk scores for severe mental disorder and metabolic phenotypes in the UK Biobank.
-
Jansen, M. G., Griffanti, L., Mackay, C. E, Anatürk, M., Melazzini, L., de Lange, A-M.G., Filippini, N., Zsoldos, E., Wiegertjes, K., de Leeuw, F.E., Singh-Manoux, A., Kivimäki, M., Ebmeier, K.P.,& Suri, S. T. Association of cerebral small vessel disease burden with brain structure and vascular and cognitive trajectories in mid-to-late life. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.
-
de Lange, A-M.G., Kaufmann, T., Quintana, D.S., Winterton, A., Andreassen, O. A., Westlye, L. T., & Ebmeier, K. (2021) Prominent health problems, socioeconomic deprivation, and higher brain age in lonely and isolated individuals: A population-based study. Behavioural Brain Research.
-
Sanders, A-M., Richard, G., Kolskår, K., Ulrichsen, K., Kaufmann, T., Alnæs, D., Beck, D., Dørum, E. S., de Lange, A-M.G., Nordvik, J.E., & Westlye, L. T. (2021) Linking brain structure with objective measures of physical activity and capability in healthy adults aged 65 to 89 years.
-
Voldsbekk, I., Barth, C., Maximov, I. I., Kaufmann, T., Beck, D., Richard, G., Moberget, T., Westlye, L. T & de Lange, A-M.G. (2021) A history of previous childbirths is linked to women’s white matter brain age in midlife and older age.
-
Maximov, I. I., van der Meer, D., de Lange, A-M.G., Kaufmann, T., Shadrin, A., Frei, O., Wolfers, T., Westlye, L. T. (2021) Fast qualitY conTrol meThod foR derIved diffUsion Metrics (YTTRIUM) in big data analysis: UK Biobank 18608 example.
-
de Lange, A-M.G., Jacobs, E. G. & Galea, L.A.M (2021) Editorial: The scientific body of knowledge: Whose body does it serve? A spotlight on women’s brain health.
-
14. Beck, D, de Lange, A-M.G, Maximov, I., Andreassen, O. A., Nordvik, J. E., & Westlye, L. T. (2021) White matter microstruc- ture across the adult lifespan: A mixed longitudinal and cross-sectional study using advanced diffusion models and brain-age prediction.
-
Hellstrøm, T., Andelic, N., Helseth, E., Eikli, K., de Lange, A-M.G., & Westlye, L. T. (2021) Apolipoprotein e4 status and brain structure 12 months after mild traumatic injury: brain age prediction using brain morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging.
-
Anatürk, M., Kaufmann, T., Cole, J.H., Suri, S., Griffanti, L., Filippini, N., Zsoldos, E., Westlye, T., Ebmeier, K. & de Lange, A-M.G. (2020) Prediction of brain age and cognitive age: quantifying cognitive reserve and brain maintenance in aging.
-
Barth, C., Nerland, S., de Lange, A-M.G, Wortinger, L. A., Hilland, E., Andreassen, O.A., Jørgensen, K. N., & Agartz, I. (2020) In vivo amygdala nuclei volumes across the schizophrenia-bipolar spectrum.
-
de Lange, A-M.G, Barth, C., Kaufmann, T., Anatürk, Suri, S., M., Ebmeier, K. P., & Westlye, L. T. (2020) The maternal brain: region-specific patterns of brain aging are traceable decades after childbirth.
-
Barth, C. & de Lange, A-M.G. (2020) Towards an understanding of womens brain aging: the immunology of pregnancy and menopause.
-
Rokicki, J., Wolfers, T., Nordhøy, W., Teslia, N., Quintana, D. S., Alnæs, D., Richard, G., de Lange, A-M.G., Lund, M. J., Nor- bom, L., Agartz, I., Melle, I., Nærland, T., Selbækh, G., Persson, K., Nordvik, J. E., Schwarz, E., Andreassen, O. A., Kaufmann, T., & Westlye, L. T. (2020) Multimodal imaging improves brain age prediction and reveals distinct abnormalities in patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders.
-
de Lange, A-M.G, Anatürk, M., Kaufmann, T., Cole, J., Griffanti, L., Zsoldos, E., Jensen, D., Suri, S., Filippini, N., Singh-Manoux, A., Kivimäki, M., Westlye, L. T., & Ebmeier, K. (2020) Multimodal brain-age prediction and cardiovascular risk: The Whitehall II MRI study.
-
Walhovd, K.B., Bråthen, A.C.S., Panizzon., M.S, Mowinckel, A. M., Sørensen, Ø., de Lange, A-M.G., Krogsrud, S. K., Håberg, A., Franz, C., Kremen, W. & Fjell, A. M. (2020) Within-session verbal learning slope is predictive of lifespan delayed recall, hippocampal volume, and memory training benefit, and is heritable.
-
de Lange A-M.G*, Barth, C*., Kaufmann. Maximov, I., van der Meer, D., T., Agartz, I., & Westlye, L. T. (2020) Women’s brain aging: effects of sex-hormone exposure, pregnancies, and genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. *joint first authorship.
-
de Lange, A-M.G & Cole, J.H. (2020) Commentary: Correction procedures in brain-age prediction.
-
Bråthen, A.C.S., de Lange, A-M.G., Fjell, A.M. & Walhovd, K.B. (2020) Risk- and protective factors for memory plasticity in aging.
-
Tønnesen, S., Kaufmann,T., de Lange, A-M.G., Richard, G, Doan, N. T., Alnæs, D., van der Meer, D., Rokicki, J., Moberget, T., Maximov., I. I., Agartz, I., Aminoff, S. R., Beck, D., Barch, D., Beresniewicz, J., Cervenka, S., Bergman, H. F., Craven, A. R., Flyckt, L., Gurholt, T. P., Haukvik, U. K., Hugdahl, K., Johnsen, E., Jönsson, E. G., Kolskår, K. K., Kompus, K., Kroken, R. A., Lagerberg, T. V., Løberg, E. M., Nordvik, J E., Sanders, A. M., Ulrichsen, K., Andreassen, O. A., Westlye, L. T. (2020) Brain age prediction reveals aberrant brain white matter in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: A multi-sample diffusion tensor imaging study.
-
de Lange, A-M.G., Kaufmann, T., van de Meer, D., Maglanoc, L., Alnæs, D., Moberget, T., Douaud, G., Andreassen, O.A., & Westlye, L.T. (2019) Population-based neuroimaging reveals traces of childbirth in the maternal brain.