Robert Keers (October 25, 1984 - July 5, 2020) was a British psychologist conducting innovative research on individual differences in

mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health ...

problems with a specific focus on

psychiatric genetics Psychiatric genetics is a subfield of behavioral neurogenetics and behavioral genetics which studies the role of genetics in the development of mental disorders (such as alcoholism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism). The basic principle ...

Biography

Born in

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...

(Buckinghamshire, UK), Rob Keers grew up in

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...

and

Tring Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...

(Hertfordshire, UK). He completed a BSc in Genetics and Psychology at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

(2003-2006) whilst also spending several months working as a nursing assistant at the Eric Shepherd Unit in Abbots Langley (2005-2006) where he was involved in the care of men with learning disabilities. He then moved to the

Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain. In addition, its aim is to help identify new treatments for them and way ...

King’s College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

for a MSc and PhD in Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry (2007-2011). After completing his PhD which investigated the effects of genes, environments and their interaction on depression and response to treatment, he took up a research fellow post at

Queen Mary University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

looking at the effects of treatment on violent outcomes in psychosis (2010-2012). He was then awarded an MRC population health scientist fellowship for his own three-year project entitle
“Translating gene-environment interaction from aetiology to personalised medicine for anxiety and depression”
based at

(2013-2016). In 2016 he joined the Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology at

as Lecturer (Assistant Professor).

Honors and awards

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

Seed Award (2017) * Population Health Fellowship from the UK Medical Research Council (2013) * 10th Annual Pharmacogenetics in Psychiatry Meeting Travel Award (2011) * Young Scientist Award,

European College of Neuropsychopharmacology The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) is a pan-European, non-profit scientific association that serves as a platform to exchange and promote research in the field of neuropsychopharmacology. The ECNP “is committed to ensuring t ...

(2010) * XVII World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics Travel Award (2009) * PhD Studentship from the UK Medical Research Council (2007)

Research

Rob Keers’ research focussed on identifying genetic and environmental factors associated with the development of

psychiatric disorders A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

and response to treatment. He has led and collaborated on a number of projects which addressed this broad aim including human

pharmacogenomics Pharmacogenomics is the study of the role of the genome in drug response. Its name ('' pharmaco-'' + ''genomics'') reflects its combining of pharmacology and genomics. Pharmacogenomics analyzes how the genetic makeup of an individual affects the ...

, gene-environment interactions,

circadian rhythms A circadian rhythm (), or circadian cycle, is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep–wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours. It can refer to any process that originates within an organism (i.e., endogenous) and responds to ...

and behavioural

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

. As part of his PhD Rob Keers investigated the effects of genes, environments and their interaction on depression and response to treatment, followed by postdoctoral research on the effects of treatment on violent outcomes in psychosis. He then received his own funding to investigate whether the same genes that moderate the effects of the environment on the development of anxiety and depression may also be important predictors of response to

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-social intervention that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression and anxiety disorders. CBT focuses on challenging and changing cognitive distortions (su ...

(CBT). This work resulted in the creation of a polygenic score for sensitivity to the environment that he found to moderate the effects of both parenting quality and psychological therapy. Specifically, he showed that genetically more sensitive children were more negatively affected by low quality parenting but also benefited more from high quality parenting. He also showed that genetically more sensitive children benefited more from intensive one-to-one CBT with a therapist whereas they did less well when they received a brief parent-led form of CBT. This genome-wide polygenic score for sensitivity has been adopted by several other researchers and shown to predict the response to psychological treatment in children as well as adults.Pluess, M., Rhoades, G. K., Keers, R., Knopp, K., Belsky, J., Markman, H. J., & Stanley, S. M. (In Revision). Genetic Sensitivity Predicts Long-Term Psychological Benefits of a Relationship Education Program for Married Couples. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. A

funded follow-up project titled “Investigating a novel approach to gene-environment interaction in depression and anxiety”, allowed him to revise and strengthen the initial polygenic scores by drawing on data from multiple twin studies with genome-wide data. Besides his influential research in psychiatric genetics, he also developed a Masters course title
MSc Psychology: Mental Health Sciences
at

Personal life

Rob Keers was married to Kate Keers. Together they had one daughter.

Important Related Concepts

Candidate gene The candidate gene approach to conducting genetic association studies focuses on associations between genetic variation within pre-specified genes of interest, and phenotypes or disease states. This is in contrast to genome-wide association studies ...

* Diathesis-stress model *

Differential susceptibility hypothesis The differential susceptibility theory proposed by Jay Belsky is another interpretation of psychological findings that are usually discussed according to the diathesis-stress model. Both models suggest that people's development and emotional aff ...

Environmental sensitivity Environmental sensitivity describes the ability of an individual to perceive and process information about their environment.Pluess, M., Individual Differences in Environmental Sensitivity. Child Development Perspectives, 2015. 9(3): p. 138-143. ...

* Gene-environment interaction *

Genome-wide association study In genomics, a genome-wide association study (GWA study, or GWAS), also known as whole genome association study (WGA study, or WGAS), is an observational study of a genome-wide set of Single-nucleotide polymorphism, genetic variants in different i ...

Sensory processing sensitivity Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a temperamental or personality trait involving "an increased sensitivity of the central nervous system and a deeper cognitive processing of physical, social and emotional stimuli". The trait is characteri ...

References

External links

Official website at Queen Mary University of London

* ttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert-Keers Official website at researchgate
Official website at sensitivityresearch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keers, Robert Academics of King's College London Academics of Queen Mary University of London British psychologists Behavior geneticists Psychiatric geneticists 1984 births 2020 deaths