About us

The WHOLE Centre is led by Professor Alkistis Skalkidou at Uppsala University. In close collaboration with Karolinska Institutet, WHOLE brings together researchers from 17 disciplines across medicine, technology, social sciences, and the humanities.

Alkistis Skalkidou

Alkistis Skalkidou

Centre Leadership

Centre Director

Professor Alkistis Skalkidou
Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University
Email: alkistis.skalkidou@uu.se

Short bio: Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the department of Women's and Children's Health and senior consultant in Uppsala University Hospital. Founding member of the WOMHER centre, has served as chairman of the Gynecological Endocrinology Working group of the Swedish Association for Obstetricians and Gynecologists and president of the Nordic Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health.

Steering Group

 

Work Package Leaders & Co-Leaders

WP1 – Lifespan Integration, Infrastructure & Governance

Donghao Lu

Donghao Lu – Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet (KI); Head of HERMIND
Email: donghao.lu@ki.se
Short bio: Leads register-based and population health research using large-scale health data to study disease patterns, risk factors, and health inequalities.

Anna Foka

Anna Foka – Professor of Digital Humanities, Department of ALM, Uppsala University
Email: anna.foka@abm.uu.se
Short bio: Founder and Director of the Centre for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at UU, with expertise in cultural history, gender, diversity, and inclusion.

WP2 – Adolescence & Puberty

Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed

Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed – Associate Professor / Senior Lecturer, Department of Literature and Rhetoric, Uppsala University
Email: sigrid.cullhed@littvet.uu.se
Short bio: Literary scholar with strong interdisciplinary leadership; Chair of the Centre for Medical Humanities and part of the management of WOMHER and the Young Academy of Sweden.

Emma Hovén

Emma Hovén – Associate Professor (Docent) in Medical Psychology, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University
Email: emma.hoven@uu.se
Short bio: Researcher and Director of WOMHER focusing on youth mental health, early prediction, prevention, and psychosocial impacts of severe illness.

WP3 – Reproductive Years & Menstrual Cycles

Mia Phillipson

Mia Phillipson – Professor of Physiology (Medical Cell Biology), Uppsala University
Email: mia.phillipson@mcb.uu.se
Short bio: Leads the Immune-Physiology Laboratory; expert in immune cell roles in tissue healing and angiogenesis; affiliated with SciLifeLab.

 

Erik Grönqvist

Erik Grönqvist – Professor of Health Economics, Uppsala University
Email: erik.gronqvist@uu.se
Short bio: Director of the Centre for Health Economics Research (HEFUU); studies socioeconomic determinants of health using quasi-experimental and register-based methods.

WP4 – Perinatal Period

Fotios Papadopoulos

Cathrine Axfors – Assistant Professor, Karolinska Institutet
Email: cathrine.axfors@ki.se
Short bio: Clinical researcher and medical doctor by training, focusing on perinatal pharmacoepidemiology as well as research transparency & reproducibility.

Fotios Papadopoulos

Fotios Papadopoulos – Professor of Psychiatry, Uppsala University
Email: fotis.papadopoulos@uu.se
Short bio: Specialist in perinatal psychiatry and gender dysphoria, integrating clinical practice with research.

 

Hannah Bradby

Hannah Bradby – Professor of Sociology, Uppsala University
Email: hannah.bradby@uu.se
Short bio: Medical sociologist focusing on migration, ethnicity, gender, and health inequalities; editor for Ethnicity & Health.

 

WP5 – Menopause & Aging

Inger Sundström Poromaa

Inger Sundström Poromaa – Professor, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University
Email: inger.sundstrom@uu.se
Short bio: Researches reproductive hormones and mental health; active member of WOMHER.

 

Ulrika Dahl

Ulrika Dahl – Professor of Gender Studies, Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University
Email: ulrika.dahl@gender.uu.se
Short bio: Researches queer kinship, reproduction, intersectionality, and critical race perspectives.

 

WP6 – Interdisciplinarity, Communication & Dissemination

Ylva Söderfeldt

Ylva Söderfeldt – Senior Lecturer (Docent) in History of Ideas; Head of the Centre for Medical Humanities, Uppsala University
Email: ylva.soderfeldt@idehist.uu.se
Short bio: Leads interdisciplinary research at the intersection of medical humanities, history of medicine, and patient involvement.

 

Ingela Nyström

Ingela Nyström – Professor of Visualization, Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University
Email: ingela.nystrom@it.uu.se
Short bio: Expert in medical image analysis and visualization; node coordinator for InfraVis.

Emma Bränn, Research Specialist, emma.brann@ki.se

The PWLE (People With Lived Experience) Board ensures that women’s experiences inform WHOLE’s research, governance, and communication.

PWLE Board Representative:

PWLE Board Member:

  • Bernard Harlow, Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, USA
  • Rita Charon, Departments of Medicine and Medical Humanities and Ethics, Columbia University, USA
  • Gabriella Conti, Department of Economics, University College London, UK
  • Sue Ziebland, Department of Medical Sociology, University of Oxford, UK
  • Sarah Hawkes, Institute for Global Health, University College London, UK
  • Oskari Heikinheimo, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Helsinki, Finland
  • Liisa Galea, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada
  • Paul Kubes, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary, Canada
  • Gita Mishra, Australian Women and Girls' Health Research Centre, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Australia

  • Matts Olovsson- Prof. of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UU
  • Cathrine Axfors – Ass. Professor of Evidence Synthesis, Epidemiology, KI
  • Pernilla Åsenlöf – Professor of Physiotherapy, Behavioral Medicine, UU
  • Emma Bränn – Research Specialist in Mental Health Epidemiology, KI
  • Emma Brulin – Senior Lecturer in Occupational Medicine, KI
  • Erika Comasco – Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience, Neuropsychopharmacology, UU
  • Cristiana Cruceanu – Ass. Professor of Preclinical Neurobiology, KI
  • Alexis E. Cullen – Principal Researcher in Psychiatric Epidemiology, KI
  • Janet Cunningham – Senior Consultant and Professor of Psychiatry, UU
  • Ulrika Dahl – Professor of Gender Studies, UU
  • Evangelia Elenis – Senior Consultant, Ass. Professor of Reproductive Medicine, UU
  • Anna Foka – Professor of Digital Humanities, Archives, Library and Information Studies, Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies, UU
  • Emma Fransson – Ass. Professor of Psychology, UU/KI
  • Femke Geusens – Researcher in Health Communication, UU
  • Maria Hägglund – Professor of eHealth, Health Informatics, UU
  • Andrea Hess Engström – Lecturer in Physiotherapy, Sexual Health, UU
  • Stavros Iliadis – Senior Consultant, Adj.Senior Lecturer in Reproductive Medicine, UU
  • Nitya Jayaram-Lindström – Researcher and Head of Psychiatry Research Center, Addiction Psychiatry & Translational Neuroscience, KI
  • Åsa Johansson – Professor of Genetics, Neurobiology, UU
  • Emily White Johansson – Researcher in Burden of Disease/Perinatal Morbidity, UU
  • Maria Jonsson – Adj. Professor of Clinical Obstetrics, UU
  • Helena Kopp-Kallner- Prof. of Obstetrics and Gynecology, KI
  • Yulia Razmetaeva – Researcher in Law, Ethics, AI, UU
  • Sara Riggare – Researcher in Participatory Methods, Patients’ Knowledge and Expertise, D.D. Centre for Disability Research, UU
  • Mattias Strand – Researcher in Transcultural Psychiatry & Eating Disorders, KI
  • Thomas Schön – Professor of AI – Data Science, UU
  • Santa Slokenberga – Ass. Professor of Medical Law, Data Protection Law, AI, Bioethics, UU
  • Hanna Spangenberg – Senior Consultant and Post-doc in C hild Psychiatry, Eating Disorders, UU
  • Alexandra Teleki – Ass. Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, UU
  • Frida Viirman – Midwife, Post-doc in Obstetrics, Maternal Health, UU
  • Lu Yi – Principal Researcher and Head of the Centre for Psychiatric Genomics, KI

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