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Professor Peter Visscher
Professor

Peter Visscher

Email: 
Phone: 
+61 7 344 37045

Overview

Background

Visscher joined the University of Queensland in 2011, where he is Professor of Quantitative Genetics. He is a Laureate Fellow of the Australian Research Council. Visscher was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2010, a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 2018 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018.

Visscher’s research is about genetic variation for complex traits (including quantitative traits and disease) in populations, with the broad aim to understand and quantify the causes and consequences of human trait variation.

Prof Peter Visscher, Prof Naomi Wray and Prof Jian Yang together comprise the Executive Team of the Program in Complex Trait Genomics (PCTG). PCTG comprises a critical mass of more than 30 post-doctoral researchers plus research assistants and students, all supported by external grant funding. Their skills lie in the ability to develop and apply statistical methods within the framework of quantitative, population and statistical genetics and to use theory to understand and predict results from data analyses. They play leading roles in the international research consortia. The focus of current research activities is in the detection and fine-mapping of loci underlying complex traits (including common disease), based upon theoretical studies and applications of methods to large datasets, in population genetics studies using theoretical approaches and high-density genetic marker data, and in systems genomics studies.

Availability

Professor Peter Visscher is:
Not available for supervision

Fields of research

Qualifications

  • Masters (Coursework) of Science, University of Edinburgh
  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh

Research impacts

Visscher's research focuses on understanding individual differences betweeen people in traits that are important for health outcomes and ageing. A better understanding of the genes that underlie variation in risk to diseases may lead to better treatments.

Works

Search Professor Peter Visscher’s works on UQ eSpace

803 works between 1987 and 2025

41 - 60 of 803 works

2023

Journal Article

Genetic and modifiable risk factors combine multiplicatively in common disease

Pang, Shichao, Yengo, Loic, Nelson, Christopher P., Bourier, Felix, Zeng, Lingyao, Li, Ling, Kessler, Thorsten, Erdmann, Jeanette, Mägi, Reedik, Läll, Kristi, Metspalu, Andres, Mueller-Myhsok, Bertram, Samani, Nilesh J., Visscher, Peter M. and Schunkert, Heribert (2023). Genetic and modifiable risk factors combine multiplicatively in common disease. Clinical Research in Cardiology, 112 (2), 247-257. doi: 10.1007/s00392-022-02081-4

Genetic and modifiable risk factors combine multiplicatively in common disease

2022

Journal Article

Local CpG density affects the trajectory and variance of age-associated DNA methylation changes

Higham, Jonathan, Kerr, Lyndsay, Zhang, Qian, Walker, Rosie M., Harris, Sarah E., Howard, David M., Hawkins, Emma L., Sandu, Anca-Larisa, Steele, J. Douglas, Waiter, Gordon D., Murray, Alison D., Evans, Kathryn L., McIntosh, Andrew M., Visscher, Peter M., Deary, Ian J., Cox, Simon R. and Sproul, Duncan (2022). Local CpG density affects the trajectory and variance of age-associated DNA methylation changes. Genome Biology, 23 (1) 216, 1-28. doi: 10.1186/s13059-022-02787-8

Local CpG density affects the trajectory and variance of age-associated DNA methylation changes

2022

Journal Article

Author Correction: Assortative mating biases marker-based heritability estimators (Nature Communications, (2022), 13, 1, (660), 10.1038/s41467-022-28294-9)

Border, Richard, O’Rourke, Sean, de Candia, Teresa, Goddard, Michael E., Visscher, Peter M., Yengo, Loic, Jones, Matt and Keller, Matthew C. (2022). Author Correction: Assortative mating biases marker-based heritability estimators (Nature Communications, (2022), 13, 1, (660), 10.1038/s41467-022-28294-9). Nature Communications, 13 (1) 1903, 1903. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29652-3

Author Correction: Assortative mating biases marker-based heritability estimators (Nature Communications, (2022), 13, 1, (660), 10.1038/s41467-022-28294-9)

2022

Journal Article

Development and external validation of multivariable risk models to predict incident and resolved neuropathic pain: a DOLORisk Dundee study

Hebert, Harry L., Veluchamy, Abirami, Baskozos, Georgios, Fardo, Francesca, Van Ryckeghem, Dimitri, Pearson, Ewan R., Colvin, Lesley A., Crombez, Geert, Bennett, David L. H., Meng, Weihua, Palmer, Colin N. A. and Smith, Blair H. (2022). Development and external validation of multivariable risk models to predict incident and resolved neuropathic pain: a DOLORisk Dundee study. Journal of Neurology, 270 (2), 1076-1094. doi: 10.1007/s00415-022-11478-0

Development and external validation of multivariable risk models to predict incident and resolved neuropathic pain: a DOLORisk Dundee study

2022

Journal Article

The effect of the scale of grant scoring on ranking accuracy

Visscher, Peter M. and Yengo, Loic (2022). The effect of the scale of grant scoring on ranking accuracy. F1000Research, 11 1197, 1-18. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.125400.1

The effect of the scale of grant scoring on ranking accuracy

2022

Journal Article

Parsimonious model for mass-univariate vertexwise analysis

Couvy-Duchesne, Baptiste, Zhang, Futao, Kemper, Kathryn E., Sidorenko, Julia, Wray, Naomi R., Visscher, Peter M., Colliot, Olivier and Yang, Jian (2022). Parsimonious model for mass-univariate vertexwise analysis. Journal of Medical Imaging, 9 (5) 052404, 1-19. doi: 10.1117/1.JMI.9.5.052404

Parsimonious model for mass-univariate vertexwise analysis

2022

Journal Article

Improving GWAS discovery and genomic prediction accuracy in biobank data

Orliac, Etienne J., Banos, Daniel Trejo, Ojavee, Sven E., Läll, Kristi, Mägi, Reedik, Visscher, Peter M. and Robinson, Matthew R. (2022). Improving GWAS discovery and genomic prediction accuracy in biobank data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119 (31) e2121279119, 1-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2121279119

Improving GWAS discovery and genomic prediction accuracy in biobank data

2022

Journal Article

Author Correction: From Mendel to quantitative genetics in the genome era: the scientific legacy of W. G. Hill

Charlesworth, Brian, Goddard, Michael E., Meyer, Karin, Visscher, Peter M., Weir, Bruce S. and Wray, Naomi R. (2022). Author Correction: From Mendel to quantitative genetics in the genome era: the scientific legacy of W. G. Hill. Nature Genetics, 54 (9), 1448-1448. doi: 10.1038/s41588-022-01160-6

Author Correction: From Mendel to quantitative genetics in the genome era: the scientific legacy of W. G. Hill

2022

Journal Article

From Mendel to quantitative genetics in the genome era: the scientific legacy of W. G. Hill

Charlesworth, Brian, Goddard, Michael E., Meyer, Karin, Visscher, Peter M., Weir, Bruce S. and Wray, Naomi R. (2022). From Mendel to quantitative genetics in the genome era: the scientific legacy of W. G. Hill. Nature Genetics, 54 (7), 934-939. doi: 10.1038/s41588-022-01103-1

From Mendel to quantitative genetics in the genome era: the scientific legacy of W. G. Hill

2022

Journal Article

Genetics of cognitive performance, education and learning: from research to policy?

Visscher, Peter M. (2022). Genetics of cognitive performance, education and learning: from research to policy?. npj Science of Learning, 7 (1) 8, 8. doi: 10.1038/s41539-022-00124-z

Genetics of cognitive performance, education and learning: from research to policy?

2022

Conference Publication

Clustering of Genetic Effects on Cortical Morphology and Links to Psychiatric Disorders

Makowski, Carolina, van der Meer, Dennis, Dong, Weixiu, Wang, Hao, Wu, Yan, Zou, Jingjing, Liu, Cin, Rosenthal, Sara B., Hagler, Donald J., Fan, Chun Chieh, Kremen, William S., Andreassen, Ole A., Jernigan, Terry L., Dale, Anders M., Zhang, Kun, Visscher, Peter M., Yang, Jian and Chen, Chi-Hua (2022). Clustering of Genetic Effects on Cortical Morphology and Links to Psychiatric Disorders. 77th Annual Scientific Convention and Meeting of the Society-of-Biological-Psychiatry (SOBP), New Orleans La, Apr 28-30, 2022. NEW YORK: ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC.

Clustering of Genetic Effects on Cortical Morphology and Links to Psychiatric Disorders

2022

Journal Article

Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals

Okbay, Aysu, Wu, Yeda, Wang, Nancy, Jayashankar, Hariharan, Bennett, Michael, Nehzati, Seyed Moeen, Sidorenko, Julia, Kweon, Hyeokmoon, Goldman, Grant, Gjorgjieva, Tamara, Jiang, Yunxuan, Hicks, Barry, Tian, Chao, Hinds, David A., Ahlskog, Rafael, Magnusson, Patrik K E, Oskarsson, Sven, Hayward, Caroline, Campbell, Archie, Porteous, David J., Freese, Jeremy, Herd, Pamela, Watson, Chelsea, Jala, Jonathan, Conley, Dalton, Koellinger, Philipp D., Johannesson, Magnus, Laibson, David, Meyer, Michelle N. ... Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (2022). Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals. Nature Genetics, 54 (4), 437-449. doi: 10.1038/s41588-022-01016-z

Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals

2022

Journal Article

Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia

Trubetskoy, Vassily, Pardiñas, Antonio F, Qi, Ting, Panagiotaropoulou, Georgia, Awasthi, Swapnil, Bigdeli, Tim B, Bryois, Julien, Chen, Chia-Yen, Dennison, Charlotte A, Hall, Lynsey S, Lam, Max, Watanabe, Kyoko, Frei, Oleksandr, Ge, Tian, Harwood, Janet C, Koopmans, Frank, Magnusson, Sigurdur, Richards, Alexander L, Sidorenko, Julia, Wu, Yang, Zeng, Jian, Grove, Jakob, Kim, Minsoo, Li, Zhiqiang, Voloudakis, Georgios, Zhang, Wen, Adams, Mark, Agartz, Ingrid, Atkinson, Elizabeth G ... Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (2022). Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia. Nature, 604 (7906), 502-508. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04434-5

Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia

2022

Journal Article

Assessing the contribution of rare variants to complex trait heritability from whole-genome sequence data

Wainschtein, Pierrick, Jain, Deepti, Zheng, Zhili, Aslibekyan, Stella, Becker, Diane, Bi, Wenjian, Brody, Jennifer, Carlson, Jenna C., Correa, Adolfo, Du, Margaret Mengmeng, Fernandez-Rhodes, Lindsay, Ferrier, Kendra R., Graff, Misa, Guo, Xiuqing, He, Jiang, Heard-Costa, Nancy L., Highland, Heather M., Hirschhorn, Joel N., Howard-Claudio, Candace M., Isasi, Carmen R., Jackson, Rebecca, Jiang, Jicai, Joehanes, Roby, Justice, Anne E., Kalyani, Rita R., Kardia, Sharon, Lange, Ethan, LeBoff, Meryl, Lee, Seunggeun ... NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium (2022). Assessing the contribution of rare variants to complex trait heritability from whole-genome sequence data. Nature Genetics, 54 (3), 263-273. doi: 10.1038/s41588-021-00997-7

Assessing the contribution of rare variants to complex trait heritability from whole-genome sequence data

2022

Journal Article

Discovery of genomic loci of the human cerebral cortex using genetically informed brain atlases

Makowski, Carolina, van der Meer, Dennis, Dong, Weixiu, Wang, Hao, Wu, Yan, Zou, Jingjing, Liu, Cin, Rosenthal, Sara B., Hagler, Donald J., Fan, Chun Chieh, Kremen, William S., Andreassen, Ole A., Jernigan, Terry L., Dale, Anders M., Zhang, Kun, Visscher, Peter M., Yang, Jian and Chen, Chi-Hua (2022). Discovery of genomic loci of the human cerebral cortex using genetically informed brain atlases. Science, 375 (6580) A27, 522-528. doi: 10.1126/science.abe8457

Discovery of genomic loci of the human cerebral cortex using genetically informed brain atlases

2022

Journal Article

Assortative mating biases marker-based heritability estimators

Border, Richard, O’Rourke, Sean, de Candia, Teresa, Goddard, Michael E., Visscher, Peter M., Yengo, Loic, Jones, Matt and Keller, Matthew C. (2022). Assortative mating biases marker-based heritability estimators. Nature Communications, 13 (1) 660. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-28294-9

Assortative mating biases marker-based heritability estimators

2022

Journal Article

Australian Parkinson’s Genetics Study (APGS): pilot (n=1532)

Bivol, Svetlana, Mellick, George D., Gratten, Jacob, Parker, Richard, Mulcahy, Aoibhe, Mosley, Philip E., Poortvliet, Peter C., Campos, Adrian I., Mitchell, Brittany L., Garcia-Marin, Luis M., Cross, Simone, Ferguson, Mary, Lind, Penelope A., Loesch, Danuta Z., Visscher, Peter M., Medland, Sarah E., Scherzer, Clemens R., Martin, Nicholas G. and Rentería, Miguel E. (2022). Australian Parkinson’s Genetics Study (APGS): pilot (n=1532). BMJ Open, 12 (2) e052032, e052032. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052032

Australian Parkinson’s Genetics Study (APGS): pilot (n=1532)

2022

Journal Article

Epigenetic scores for the circulating proteome as tools for disease prediction

Gadd, Danni A., Hillary, Robert F., McCartney, Daniel L., Zaghlool, Shaza B., Stevenson, Anna J., Cheng, Yipeng, Fawns-Ritchie, Chloe, Nangle, Cliff, Campbell, Archie, Flaig, Robin, Harris, Sarah E., Walker, Rosie M., Shi, Liu, Tucker-Drob, Elliot M., Gieger, Christian, Peters, Annette, Waldenberger, Melanie, Graumann, Johannes, McRae, Allan F., Deary, Ian J., Porteous, David J., Hayward, Caroline, Visscher, Peter M., Cox, Simon R., Evans, Kathryn L., McIntosh, Andrew M., Suhre, Karsten and Marioni, Riccardo E. (2022). Epigenetic scores for the circulating proteome as tools for disease prediction. eLife, 11 e71802, 1-24. doi: 10.7554/eLife.71802

Epigenetic scores for the circulating proteome as tools for disease prediction

2021

Book Chapter

Marker assisted selection

Visscher, P. M., van der Beek, S. and Haley, C. S. (2021). Marker assisted selection. Animal Breeding. (pp. 119-136) edited by A.E. Clark. Boca Raton, FL, United States: CRC Press. doi: 10.1201/9781315137483-9

Marker assisted selection

2021

Journal Article

Improved analyses of GWAS summary statistics by reducing data heterogeneity and errors

Chen, Wenhan, Wu, Yang, Zheng, Zhili, Qi, Ting, Visscher, Peter M., Zhu, Zhihong and Yang, Jian (2021). Improved analyses of GWAS summary statistics by reducing data heterogeneity and errors. Nature Communications, 12 (1) 7117, 7117. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-27438-7

Improved analyses of GWAS summary statistics by reducing data heterogeneity and errors

Funding

Current funding

  • 2019 - 2025
    Causes and consequence of human trait variation
    ARC Australian Laureate Fellowships
    Open grant

Past funding

  • 2022 - 2025
    Genetic architecture and evolution of complex traits across populations
    ARC Discovery Projects
    Open grant
  • 2018 - 2024
    Estimating the genetic and environmental architecture of psychiatric disorders (NIH Grant administered by the University of Colorado)
    University of Colorado
    Open grant
  • 2017 - 2023
    Complex trait genomics
    NHMRC Program Grant
    Open grant
  • 2016 - 2019
    Genetic analysis of the relationship between parental age and risk of psychiatric disorders
    NHMRC Project Grant
    Open grant
  • 2016 - 2019
    Phenotypic profiling from DNA using genetic and epigenetic information
    ARC Discovery Projects
    Open grant
  • 2016 - 2018
    The genetics of ageing in human populations
    ARC Discovery Projects
    Open grant
  • 2015 - 2019
    Sporadic ALS Australian Systems Genomics Consortium (SALSA-SGC)
    Motor Neurone Disease Research Institute of Australia Inc
    Open grant
  • 2015 - 2020
    Analysis of Genome-Wide Data in the Health and Retirement Study (NIH grant administered by the University of Southern California)
    University of Southern California
    Open grant
  • 2015 - 2019
    1/2 A Large-Scale Schizophrenia Association Study in Sweden (NIH grant administered by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
    University of North Carolina
    Open grant
  • 2015 - 2017
    Increasing the power of GxE detection by using multi-locus genome-wide predictors (NIH grant administered by Harvard Medical School)
    Harvard Medical School
    Open grant
  • 2015 - 2019
    NHMRC Research Fellowship: Neurogenetics and Statistical Genomics
    NHMRC Research Fellowship
    Open grant
  • 2014
    Deciphering the genetic code of diseases
    National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme
    Open grant
  • 2014
    Trans-ethnic and trans-omic statistical analyses to identify new ALS risk variants
    Motor Neurone Disease Research Institute of Australia Inc
    Open grant
  • 2013 - 2018
    Estimating the Frequencies and Population Specificities of Risk Alleles (NIH grant administered by the University of Colorado)
    University of Colorado
    Open grant
  • 2013 - 2016
    CAGE: Consortium for the Architecture of Gene Expression
    NHMRC Project Grant
    Open grant
  • 2013 - 2015
    Estimation and partitioning of the still-missing heritability for complex disease
    NHMRC Project Grant
    Open grant
  • 2013 - 2016
    Estimation of non-additive genetic variance for complex traits using genome-wide SNP and sequence data
    ARC Discovery Projects
    Open grant
  • 2013 - 2016
    Exploiting SNP data in epidemiology and genetics through multivariate analysis of complex traits
    NHMRC Project Grant
    Open grant
  • 2013 - 2015
    The genetic architecture and evolution of quantitative traits (ARC Discovery Project administered by the University of Melbourne)
    University of Melbourne
    Open grant
  • 2012 - 2018
    Statistical and Quantitative Genetics (NIH Grant administered by the University of Washington)
    University of Washington (Seattle)
    Open grant
  • 2012 - 2017
    Statistical genetic analyses of social and economic outcomes
    Stockholm School of Economics
    Open grant
  • 2012 - 2017
    Belgian Medical Genomics Initiative (BeMGI)
    University of Liege
    Open grant
  • 2012
    Explaining the Dark Matter of Genome-wide Association Studies for Complex Disease
    NHMRC Project Grant
    Open grant
  • 2011 - 2014
    Better Methods for Individual Risk Prediction of Complex Traits in Human Populations
    NHMRC Project Grant
    Open grant
  • 2011 - 2014
    NHMRC Research Fellowship (SPRF)
    NHMRC Research Fellowship
    Open grant
  • 2011 - 2017
    Theoretical Population Genetics (NIH Subcontract administered by the University of Washington)
    University of Washington (Seattle)
    Open grant
  • 2010 - 2013
    Identifying eQTLs and endophenotyping known CNVs in a large Australian schizophrenia sample
    NHMRC Project Grant
    Open grant
  • 2010 - 2012
    Why is most of the genetic variance for complex traits undetected by large powerful screens of common variants? (ARC Discovery Project administered by The University of Melbourne)
    University of Melbourne
    Open grant
  • 2007 - 2009
    Maximising knowledge from dense SNP data using multi-locus analysis
    ARC Discovery Projects
    Open grant

Supervision

Availability

Professor Peter Visscher is:
Not available for supervision

Supervision history

Current supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Statistical methods and application to analyses genome and trait data from large biobanks

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Kathryn Kemper, Professor Loic Yengo

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Genetic architecture and evolution of complex traits across populations in humans

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Naomi Wray, Dr Fleur Garton, Dr Jian Zeng

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Integrating GWAS and molecular QTL data to dissect genetic architecture and improve polygenic prediction

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Jian Zeng

Completed supervision

Media

Enquiries

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