Complex Disease Neurobiology and Precision Medicine
The Complex Disease and Precision Medicine team is composed of post-doctoral fellows, research assistants, bioinformaticians and research higher degree students.
Our laboratory has interests in many different areas. Including population genetics of complex disorders. The neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, especially schizophrenia. Drug repurposing, and precision medicine approaches with a basis in population genetics.
We have collaborations with HMRI, NeuRA, ASRB, and the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. Our lab group is currently looking to implement a precision medicine platform for improving outcomes in complex psychiatric disorders and cardiovascular disease.
We have a long-standing research track record in miRNA biomarkers of schizophrenia through analysis of the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank (ASRB). Over 1,000 samples from this tissue resource have also been analysed using common (minor allele frequency >5%) variant genome-wide SNP analysis from DNA extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) also from the same individuals. A smaller subset has been subjected to whole genome sequencing (N=500), RNA-Seq (n=200), and epitranscriptome-wide DNA methylation analysis (n=384).
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The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.