Professor of Behavioural Genetics Uku Vainik gives his inaugural lecture on integrating behavioural sciences and genetics

On Thursday, 13 March, at 16:15 in the University of Tartu assembly hall, Professor of Behavioural Genetics Uku Vainik gives his inaugural lecture on the links between behaviour and genetics.

“Being overweight is in my genes”, “The apple doesn't fall far from the tree”, “No matter how much you feed the wolf, he keeps looking at the forest” – such sayings suggest that behaviour and genetics are closely intertwined. We see the links everywhere, but at university, the two disciplines are separated: behavioural sciences are part of social sciences, and genetics is part of natural sciences. Uku Vainik tries to bring the two together by exploring the topics of obesity, health and personality.

In the first half of the lecture, Vainik will discuss what behavioural scientists gain from taking genetics into account. Giving examples of links between obesity and personality, the professor will explain how to calculate polygenic scores using genetic data. This allows psychologists to add new traits to the data set, peek into people’s futures and get clues about the causality of the links.

Vainik has found in his research that people who are overweight tend to be a bit more anxious and less conscientious. “I had a hypothesis in my head that maybe their personality causes the obesity: because of anxiety, people are more prone to emotional eating, or, being less conscientious, they do not refuse food when it is offered. However, behavioural genetic analysis showed that the relationship is quite the opposite,” said the professor.

But do geneticists need behavioural sciences, or is sequencing human genes enough? Vainik thinks they would also benefit from collecting behavioural data in their work. For example, behaviour could explain which types of people decide to become gene donors or who could be more likely to listen to health advice based on polygenic scores.

At the end of the lecture, the professor will discuss to what extent behaviour and genetics can be separated. Is the cause of obesity inevitably in the genes and the wolf does keep looking at the forest, or can we counter genetic tendencies and manage our behaviour? Somehow, the wolf did become the dog after all.

In 2015, Uku Vainik defended his doctoral thesis “Towards a comprehensive framework for the psychological mechanisms of obesity and overeating” at the University of Tartu Institute of Psychology. Individual articles of this thesis were awarded in the national contest for university students. During his studies, he worked at the universities of Konstanz, Toronto and McGill. He also completed his post-doctoral training at the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University.

In 2019, Vainik started his career at the University of Tartu Institute of Psychology, first as a research fellow and later as an associate professor. He continued working at McGill University as an adjunct professor. At the same time, cooperation with the University of Tartu Institute of Genomics intensified rapidly – in 2022, Vainik became an associate professor at the Institute of Genomics, and under his co-management, a unique personality study of the Estonian Biobank was completed. In June 2024, Vainik became Professor of Behavioural Genetics, being the youngest professor at the University of Tartu. He has received funding from the Estonian Research Council and the European Research Council, as well as support from Horizon 2020.

The aim of the inaugural lecture is to give the new professor an opportunity to introduce himself, his specialisation and field of research. At the end of the public lecture, the audience will be able to ask the professor questions. Everyone interested is welcome. A live webcast will be available on UTTV.