The UiS Biopsychology Research Group investigates the intersection between psychology and biology. The research group explores health and ill-health across the lifespan by going beyond biomedical models, to look at psychological well-being and behavioral components as they interact with biological predispositions.
Group members in the Stavanger area and ongoing projects
Bianka Karshikoff is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Studies and the Faculty of Social Sciences at UiS. She is interested in how the immune system is involved in chronic pain and mental well-being. Her background is in the field of Psychoneuroimmunology. In collaboration with the Cognitive Lab at UiS, she is developing a study on physiological sensitivity and the progression of early- to late-stage chronic pain. She is currently investigating novel blood biomarkers for low back pain in collaboration with Stanford University, and changes in cognition and pain sensitivity during seasonal allergies in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet. She is also working with Dr. Ragnar Kvie Sande on a project on biomarkers in endometriosis with the Stavanger University Hospital.
Liss Gøril Anda-Ågotnes is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Studies and the Faculty of Social Sciences at UiS. She is interested in the interaction between mental health and the body. She is running a qualitative project on peripartum depression (PPD) and physical closeness to the infant in collaboration with Stavanger University Hospital, Helgelandssykehuset, and OsloMet. This project constitutes the exploratory stage of investigating new ways of preventing and ameliorating PPD, for which painful birth experiences and continued physical discomfort are known risk factors. She is also involved in a study on digital therapy for comorbid anxiety and depression during Parkinson’s disease.
Richard Piech is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Studies and the Faculty of Social Sciences at UiS. He conducts investigations on decisions in social domains, including child protection and in migrant populations. He is working a project on immigrants' experiences of moving to Norway. The project will map physiological responses to simulations related to status in different phases of the migration process, including the role of cultural background in such responses. This will contribute to understanding how migrants' well-being can be protected against the negative effects of status focus.
Ragnar Kvie Sande is an Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical Science at the University of Bergen. He is also a senior consultant and head of fetal medicine at Stavanger University Hospital and has a 20% position as a research coordinator at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the hospital. His main research interests lie in fetal medicine and obstetrics, but he has also been involved in research on gynecological cancer and metabolomics. Sande is the PI on a proteomics study on biomarkers in endometriosis.
Nina Egeland Amundsen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences at UiS, with a Ph.D. in life science/biochemistry. She has studied pain physiology at the Norwegian Institute of the Working Environment, focusing on the development of chronic pain in an animal model using electrophysiology and gene expression studies. Her doctoral work was carried out at Stavanger University Hospital, where she investigated biomarkers in breast cancer.