Fields of Research

Gene mapping
Epigenetics (incl. genome methylation and epigenomics)
Anthropological genetics
Genomics
Obstetrics and gynaecology
Gastroenterology and hepatology
Genomics and transcriptomics
Mental health services
Neurogenetics
Gene expression (incl. microarray and other genome-wide approaches)
Genetics
Biological adaptation
Cardiology (incl. cardiovascular diseases)
Translational and applied bioinformatics
Medical bacteriology
Foetal development and medicine
Ophthalmology
Endocrinology
Epidemiology
Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Nutrigenomics and personalised nutrition
Cancer diagnosis
Cancer genetics
Medical biochemistry - lipids
Physiotherapy
Biological mathematics
Statistical and quantitative genetics
Molecular targets

Research Objectives

Clinical health
Expanding knowledge in the mathematical sciences
Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences
Neonatal and child health
Determinants of health
Public health (excl. specific population health)
Expanding knowledge in psychology
Preventive medicine
Expanding knowledge in the biomedical and clinical sciences
Women's and maternal health
Adolescent health
Overweight and obesity
Human pain management
Expanding knowledge in the health sciences
Evaluation of health outcomes
Human pharmaceutical treatments
Health inequalities
Behaviour and health
Prevention of human diseases and conditions
Nutrition
Mental health
Health status (incl. wellbeing)
Diagnosis of human diseases and conditions
Treatment of human diseases and conditions

Career Best Publications

Research Publications

A genome-wide association study for malignant mesothelioma risk; Lung Cancer
A Genome-Wide Integrative Genomic Study Localizes Genetic Factors Influencing Antibodies against Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigen 1 (EBNA-1); PLoS Genetics
A methylome and transcriptome analysis of normal human scar cells reveals a role for FOXF2 in scar maintenance; The Journal of Investigative Dermatology
Absence of germline mutations in BAP1 in sporadic cases of malignant mesothelioma; Gene
Adiposity associated DNA methylation signatures in adolescents are related to leptin and perinatal factors; Epigenetics
Analysis of the epigenome in multiplex pre-eclampsia families identifies SORD, DGKI, and ICA1 as novel candidate risk genes; Frontiers in Genetics
ANRIL promoter DNA methylation: a perinatal marker for later adiposity; EBioMedicine
Assessment of cognition and personality as potential endophenotypes in the Western Australian Family Study of Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia Bulletin
Association of maternal prenatal smoking GFI1-locus and cardio-metabolic phenotypes in 18,212 adults; EBioMedicine
Association of protein function-altering variants with cardiometabolic traits: the strong heart study; Scientific reports
Bile acids associate with specific gut microbiota, low level alcohol consumption and liver fibrosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; Liver International
Biological Aging and Cox Hazard Analysis of Mortality Trends in a Mennonite Community From South-Central Kansas; American Journal of Human Biology
Biological relationship between Central and South American Chibchan speaking populations: evidence from mtDNA; American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Bivariate association analysis of longitudinal phenotypes in families; BMC Proceedings
Bivariate genetic association of KIAA1797 with heart rate in American Indians: The Strong Heart Family Study; Human Molecular Genetics
Butyrate generated by gut microbiota and its therapeutic role in metabolic syndrome; Pharmacological Research
Childhood sleep health and epigenetic age acceleration in late adolescence: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses; Acta Paediatrica
Cohort profile: Pregnancy and childhood epigenetics (PACE) consortium; International Journal of Epidemiology
Comprehensive genetic analysis of the human lipidome identifies loci associated with lipid homeostasis with links to coronary artery disease; Nature communications
Constrained multivariate association with longitudinal phenotypes; BMC Proceedings
Differential DNA methylation of steatosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in adolescence; Hepatology International
Differential SLC6A4 methylation: a predictive epigenetic marker of adiposity from birth to adulthood; International Journal of Obesity
DNA methylation and body mass index from birth to adolescence: meta-analyses of epigenome-wide association studies; Genome Medicine
DNA methylation patterns within whole blood of adolescents born from assisted reproductive technology are not different from adolescents born from natural conception; Human Reproduction
Effect of recent historical events on migration and isonymic stratification among the Rama Amerindians from Nicaragua; Human Biology
Ensemble machine learning identifies genetic loci associated with future worsening of disability in people with multiple sclerosis; Scientific Reports
Epigenetic age acceleration in adolescence associates with BMI, inflammation and risk score for middle age cardiovascular disease; Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
Epigenetic effects of metformin: From molecular mechanisms to clinical implications
Epigenetics, heritability and longitudinal analysis
Epigenome-wide association study of thyroid function traits identifies novel associations of fT3 with KLF9 and DOT1L; Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of blood DNA methylation in newborns and children identifies numerous loci related to gestational age; Genome Medicine
Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of DNA methylation and childhood asthma; Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Evaluation of epigenetic age calculators between preeclampsia and normotensive pregnancies in an Australian cohort; Scientific Reports
Evidence of heterogeneity by race/ethnicity in genetic determinants of QT interval; Epidemiology
Exome array analysis suggests an increased variant burden in families with schizophrenia; Schizophrenia Research
GAW20: methods and strategies for the new frontiers of epigenetics and pharmacogenomics; BMC Proceedings
Genetic Analysis Workshop 18: Methods and strategies for analyzing human sequence and phenotype data in members of extended pedigrees; BMC Proceedings
Genetic Analysis Workshop 19: methods and strategies for analyzing human sequence and gene expression data in extended families and unrelated individuals; BMC Proceedings
Genetic architecture of carotid artery intima-media thickness in Mexican Americans; Circulation Cardiovascular Genetics
Genetic dissection of the pre-eclampsia susceptibility locus on chromosome 2q22 reveals shared novel risk factors for cardiovascular disease; Molecular Human Reproduction
Genetic influence on scar height and pliability after burn injury in individuals of European ancestry: A prospective cohort study; Burns
Genetic influences on serum bilirubin in American Indians: The Strong Heart Family Study; American Journal of Human Biology
Genetic signal maximization using environmental regression; BMC Proceedings
Genetic structure of native circumpolar populations based on autosomal, mitochondrial, and Y chromosome DNA markers; American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Genome-wide analysis of thyroid function in Australian adolescents highlights SERPINA7 and NCOA3; European Journal of Endocrinology
Genome-wide association study of autistic-like traits in a general population study of young adults; Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Genome-wide transcriptome directed pathway analysis of maternal pre-eclampsia susceptibility genes; PloS One
Genomic and phenotypic insights from an atlas of genetic effects on DNA methylation; Nature Genetics
Heritability of 596 lipid species and genetic correlation with cardiovascular traits in the Busselton Family Heart Study; Journal of Lipid Research
Heritability of musculoskeletal pain and pain sensitivity phenotypes: 2 generations of the Raine Study; Pain
Identification of differentially methylated CpG sites in fibroblasts from keloid scars; Biomedicines
Identification of novel sarcoma risk genes using a two-stage genome wide DNA sequencing strategy in cancer cluster families and population case and control cohorts; BMC Medical Genetics
In epigenomic studies, including cell-type adjustments in regression models can introduce multicollinearity, resulting in apparent reversal of direction of association; Frontiers in Genetics
Integrating Genetic structural variations and whole genome sequencing into clinical neurology; Neurology: Genetics
Joint analyses of disease and correlated quantitative phenotypes using next-generation sequencing data; Genetic Epidemiology
Large scale mitochondrial sequencing in Mexican Americans suggests a reappraisal of Native American origins; BMC Evolutionary Biology
Late/post-term decidual basalis-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells show evidence of advanced ageing and downregulation of microRNA-516b-5p; Placenta
Longitudinal analytical approaches to genetic data; BMC Genetics
Longitudinal Data Analysis for Genetic Studies in the Whole-Genome Sequencing Era; Genetic Epidemiology
Machine learning and clinical epigenetics: a review of challenges for diagnosis and classification; Clinical Epigenetics
Machine learning-based DNA methylation score for fetal exposure to maternal smoking: development and validation in samples collected from adolescents and adults; Environmental Health Perspectives
Maternal BMI at the start of pregnancy and offspring epigenome-wide DNA methylation: Findings from the pregnancy and childhood epigenetics (PACE) consortium; Human Molecular Genetics
Maternal haemoglobin levels in pregnancy and child DNA methylation: a study in the pregnancy and childhood epigenetics consortium; Epigenetics
Maternal smoking during pregnancy induces persistent epigenetic changes into adolescence, independent of postnatal smoke exposure and is associated with cardiometabolic risk; Frontiers in Genetics
Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies in neonates reveals widespread differential DNA methylation associated with birthweight; Nature Communications
Meta-analysis of human methylation data for evidence of sex-specific autosomal patterns; BMC Genomics
Methylome-wide association study of central adiposity implicates genes involved in immune and endocrine systems; Epigenomics
Microevolution, migration, and the population structure of five Amerindian populations from Nicaragua and Costa Rica; American Journal of Human Biology
Mitochondrial DNA Diversity in Mennonite Communities from the Midwestern United States; Human Biology
Paternal genetic structure in contemporary Mennonite communities from the American midwest; Human Biology
Patterns of DNA Methylation across the Leptin Core Promoter in Four Diverse Asian and North American Populations; Human Biology
Pleiotropy of cardiometabolic syndrome with obesity-related anthropometric traits determined using empirically derived kinships from the Busselton Health Study; Human Genetics
Preeclampsia and cardiovascular disease share genetic risk factors on chromosome 2q22; Pregnancy Hypertension
Refined phenotyping identifies links between preeclampsia and related diseases in a Norwegian preeclampsia family cohort; Journal of Hypertension
Retinal genes are differentially expressed in areas of primary versus secondary degeneration following partial optic nerve injury; PloS One
rs641738C>T near MBOAT7 is associated with liver fat, ALT, and fibrosis in NAFLD: a meta-analysis; Journal of Hepatology
Statins do not directly inhibit the activity of major epigenetic modifying enzymes; Cancers
The antihypertensive MTHFR gene polymorphism rs17367504-G is a possible novel protective locus for preeclampsia; Journal of Hypertension
The LifeCycle Project‑EU Child Cohort Network: a federated analysis infrastructure and harmonized data of more than 250,000 children and parents; European Journal of Epidemiology
Topical application of an irreversible small molecule inhibitor of lysyl oxidases ameliorates skin scarring and fibrosis; Nature Communications
Transcriptome analysis of human ageing in male skin shows mid-life period of variability and central role of NF-κB; Scientific Reports
Variants in mitochondrial amidoxime reducing component 1 and hydroxysteroid 17-beta dehydrogenase 13 reduce severity of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children and suppress fibrotic pathways through distinct mechanisms; Hepatology communications
Western oropharyngeal and gut microbial profiles are associated with allergic conditions in Chinese immigrant children; World Allergy Organization Journal
Whole genome sequencing of 91 multiplex schizophrenia families reveals increased burden of rare, exonic copy number variation in schizophrenia probands and genetic heterogeneity; Schizophrenia Research
Whole-exome sequencing in multiplex preeclampsia families identifies novel candidate susceptibility genes; Journal of Hypertension

Research Projects

Epigenetic Biomarker Discovery for Cardiovascular Disease Risk Stratification of Women Following Preeclampsia; National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Using genomic signatures of natural selection to elucidate the genetic architecture of multiple sclerosis; Multiple Sclerosis Australia (MSA)

Research Candidate Supervision