Contact
Email: ahollo02@student.bbk.ac.uk
Twitter: @AnjaHollowell
Bluesky: @anjahollowell.bsky.social
Supervisors
Prof Angelica Ronald
Prof Mark Johnson
Prof Iroise Dumontheil
Research
My PhD project, titled Large-scale cognitive and genetic investigations into the relationship between infant temperament and later mental health outcomes will use data from a number of different pregnancy and birth cohorts from the EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology consortium (https://www.eagle-consortium.org/) to map the common genetic architecture of infant temperament traits. The project will also look into the role of infant temperament on lifespan development at behavioural and cognitive levels using longitudinal research designs. It is part of the Genetics of Early Milestones and Skills project (GEMS).
Funding
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) +3 studentship
Education
PhD Psychology – Birkbeck, University of London (2021-2024)
MSc (distinction) Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology – Birkbeck, University of London (2016 – 2018)
BSc (2:1) Natural Sciences (Major: Biochemistry and Genetics Minor: Statistics) – Lancaster University (2012 – 2015)
Publications
Gui, A., Hollowell, A., Wigdor, E. M., Morgan, M. J., Hannigan, L. J., Corfield, E. C., Odintsova, V., Hottenga, J.-J., Wong, A., Pool, R., Cullen, H., Wilson, S., Warrier, V., Eilertsen, E. M., Andreassen, O. A., Middeldorp, C. M., St Pourcain, B., Bartels, M., Boomsma, D. I., . . . Ronald, A. (2025). Genome-wide association meta-analysis of age at onset of walking in over 70,000 infants of European ancestry. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02145-1
Pavarini, G., Reardon, T., Hollowell, A. Bennett, V., Lawrance, E., Pinfold, V., & Singh, I. (2022). Online peer support training to promote adolescents’ emotional support skills, mental health and agency during COVID-19: Randomised controlled trial and qualitative evaluation. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01933-0
Hollowell, A., & Ronald, A. (2020). Psychotic experiences associate with a bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE) in adolescence. Schizophrenia Research, 218. 304-305. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0920996420301079?via%3Dihub
Conferences and Presentations
‘Preliminary results from a genome-wide association study of infant fussiness including a phenotypic harmonisation approach to account for measurement heterogeneity’ London Genetics Network Annual Meeting, ECR flash talk, December 2022
‘Mapping the common genetic architecture of early temperament: First-look results from genome-wide association analyses of infant cohorts’ – World Congress for Psychiatric Genetics, Poster, September 2022