Dr Liana Romaniuk (BSc(Hons) MSc PhD MBChB MRCPsych)

Senior Clinical lecturer

Biography

Background

I’m a  consultant and senior clinical lecturer in child and adolescent psychiatry.  

My research focuses on applying computational methods to neuroimaging datasets for the purposes of developing a more mechanistic understanding of mental illness, particularly during the prodromal phase. I'm especially interested in understanding how flexible thinking and personal autonomy can be maintained and bolstered despite illness.  I hope this will better guide the development of new treatments, and aid young people in making individual choices during their recoveries. 

In my spare time I love motorbikes, photography, crochet, singing, gardening and trying ridiculous new pursuits like sailing. 

CV

PDF icon romaniuk_cv_apr2023.pdf

Qualifications

Cybernetics, BSc(Hons), University of Bradford,  2004.

Neuroinformatics, MSc, University of Edinburgh,  2005.

Neuroinformatics, PhD, University of Edinburgh,  2011.

Medicine, MBChB, University of Edinburgh, 2014.

Responsibilities & affiliations

Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2019.

Current PhD students supervised

Gladi Thng

Research summary

  1. Computational psychiatry: The use of various modelling techniques to provide a mechanistic account for neuroimaging data. Examples include applying reinforcement learning models to Pavlovian conditioning fMRI data involving patients with schizophrenia, which found evidence of reward system dysfunction correlating with severity of delusional symptoms. Other applications include modelling the reward system, and applying Dynamic Causal Modelling in the context of depressive symptoms.  
    1. Siegel-Ramsay JE, Romaniuk L, Whalley HC, Roberts N, Branigan H, Stanfield AC, Lawrie SM, Dauvermann MR. (2021) Glutamate and functional connectivity-support for the excitatory-inhibitory imbalance hypothesis in autism spectrum disorders. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. 313:111302.  
    2. Rupprechter S, Romaniuk L, Series P, Hirose Y, Hawkins E, Sandu A-L, Waiter GD, McNeil CJ, Shen X, Harris MA, Campbell A, Porteous D, Macfarlane JA, Lawrie SM, Murray AD, Delgado MR, McIntosh AM, Whalley HC, Steele JD. (2020) Blunted medial prefrontal cortico-limbic reward-related effective connectivity and depression. Brain. awaa106.  
    3. Romaniuk L, Sandu AL, Waiter GD, McNeil CJ, Xueyi S, Harris MA, Macfarlane JA, Lawrie SM, Deary IJ, Murray AD, Delgado MR, Steele JD, McIntosh AM, Whalley HC. (2019) The neurobiology of personal control during reward learning and its relationship to mood. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 4(2):190-199.
    4. Romaniuk L, Honey GD, King J, Whalley H, McIntosh AM, Day M, Hughes M, Johnstone EC, Lawrie SM, Hall J (2010) Altered midbrain activation during aversive Pavlovian conditioning correlates with the severity of delusional symptoms in schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 67(12):1246-54.  
  2. Computational and advanced statistical analysis of largescale datasets: Applying multivariate approaches to large human datasets, in order to better isolate the specific impact of potential risk and resilience covariates.  
    1. Thng G, Shen X, Stolicyn A, Harris MA, Adams MJ, Barbu MC, Kwong A, Frangou S, Lawrie SM, McIntosh AM, Romaniuk L, Whalley HC (2022) Comparing personalized brain-based and genetic risk scores for major depressive disorder in large population samples of adults and adolescents. European psychiatry.65(1), e44.  
    2. Shen X, MacSweeney N, Chan SWY, Barbu MC, Adams MJ, Lawrie SM, Romaniuk L, McIntosh AM, Whalley HC. (2021) Brain structural associations with depression in a large early adolescent sample (the ABCD study®). EClinicalMedicine. 42:101204.  
  3. Pre- and post-interventional longitudinal neuroimaging: Within the context of clinical interventions, using neuroimaging to identify brain-related changes that correlate with and ideally predict clinical efficacy at baseline.  
    1. Seretny M, Romaniuk L, Whalley H, Sladdin K, Lawrie S, Warnaby CE, Roberts N, Colvin L, Tracey I, Fallon M. (2022) Neuroimaging reveals a potential brain-based pre-existing mechanism that confers vulnerability to development of chronic painful chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Br J Anaesth. 2022 Nov 14.  
    2. Hewitt CA, Vincent K, Middleton LJ, Romaniuk L, Koscielniak M, Doust AM, Birch J, Whalley H, Daniels JP, Horne AW. Gabapentin to reduce pain in women aged between 18 and 50 years with chronic pelvic pain: the GaPP2 RCT. Southampton (UK): NIHR Journals Library; 2020 Nov.

Knowledge exchange

Publications:

https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=PGxZSugAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao 

Project activity

I have been / am involved in these projects:

Wellcome Trust Strategic Award: "Stratifying Depression Through Prospective Longitudinal Assessment". A McIntosh (PI). 01/2016 -12/2020.

Wellcome Trust ISSF award: "Development of novel neuroimaging markers for the detection of adolescent depression". HC Whalley (PI). L Romaniuk (Co-I). 10/2019-10/2022.

UKRI/MRC-funded "Loneliness in the digital world: Co-developing smartphone-based research to examine how online social experiences impact adolescent mental health". HC Whalley (PI). L Romaniuk (Co-I). 2022. 

Wellcome-funded "Mental health trajectories following pharmacological and psychological treatment". HC Whalley (PI). L Romaniuk (Co-I). 2022. 

UKRI/NIHR EME grant: A Phase II RCT Of OrAl Cannabinoid Versus Placebo In The Treatment Of Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral NeurOpathic PaiN (ACTION). M Fallon (PI). L Romaniuk (Co-I). 2023.

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