
Overview
Background
The objective of my research is to improve understanding of the genetic etiology and biological mechanisms underlying risk of common psychiatric disorders, particularly those with onset during childhood and adolescence. As a Senior Research Fellow at the Child Health Research Centre, I lead a number of domestic and international collaborations that evaluate the association between polygenic risk scores, environmental variables and behaviour during childhood and adolescence. My group applies innovative statistical methods to large longitudinal datasets with information from infancy through to adulthood and to evaluate genetic and environmental contributions to risk to mental health problems. In addition, our research focuses on the potential clinical utility of polygenic risk scores in psychiatry. I have contributed to major advances in understanding of the etiology of a number of psychiatric disorders, with a major focus on depression
PhD and Honours projects are available in the group. Please contact me for more information.
Availability
- Dr Enda Byrne is:
- Available for supervision
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
Research interests
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Genomic Technologies
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Statistical and Computational methods
Research impacts
My research has contributed to advances in a number of fields through the identification of previously unknown genetic variants that contribute to risk to complex disorders. The identification of these variants opens up new avenues for developing drug targets to target the biological pathways in which they are found.
Works
Search Professor Enda Byrne’s works on UQ eSpace
2015
Journal Article
Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology
Locke, Adam E., Kahali, Bratati, Berndt, Sonja I., Justice, Anne E., Pers, Tune H., Day, Felix R., Powell, Corey, Vedantam, Sailaja, Buchkovich, Martin L., Yang, Jian, Croteau-Chonka, Damien C., Esko, Tonu, Fall, Tove, Ferreira, Teresa, Gustafsson, Stefan, Kutalik, Zoltán, Luan, Jian'an, Mägi, Reedik, Randall, Joshua C., Winkler, Thomas W., Wood, Andrew R., Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie, Faul, Jessica D., Smith, Jennifer A., Zhao, Jing Hua, Zhao, Wei, Chen, Jin, Fehrmann, Rudolf, Hedman, Asa K. ... Shah, Sonia (2015). Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology. Nature, 518 (7538), 197-206. doi: 10.1038/nature14177
2015
Journal Article
Heritability of Transforming Growth Factor-β1 and Tumor Necrosis Factor-Receptor Type 1 Expression and Vitamin D Levels in Healthy Adolescent Twins
Mills, Natalie T., Wright, Margaret J., Henders, Anjali K., Eyles, Darryl W., Baune, Bernhard T., McGrath, John J., Byrne, Edna M., Hansell, Narelle K., Birosova, Eva, Scott, James G., Martin, Nicholas G., Montgomery, Grant W., Wray, Naomi R. and Vinkhuyzen, Anna A. E. (2015). Heritability of Transforming Growth Factor-β1 and Tumor Necrosis Factor-Receptor Type 1 Expression and Vitamin D Levels in Healthy Adolescent Twins. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 18 (1), 28-35. doi: 10.1017/thg.2014.70
2015
Journal Article
Seasonality shows evidence for polygenic architecture and genetic correlation with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
Byrne, Enda M, Raheja, Uttam K, Stephens, Sarah H, Heath, Andrew C, Madden, Pamela A, Vaswani, Dipika, Nijjar, Gagan V, Ryan, Kathleen A, Youssufi, Hassaan, Gehrman, Philip R, Shuldiner, Alan R, Martin, Nicholas G, Montgomery, Grant W, Wray, Naomi R, Nelson, Elliot C, Mitchell, Braxton D, Postolache, Teodor T, Psychiatric Genetics Consortium Major Depressive Disorder Working Group and Middeldorp, Christel (2015). Seasonality shows evidence for polygenic architecture and genetic correlation with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 76 (2), 128-134. doi: 10.4088/JCP.14m08981
2015
Journal Article
Psychiatric genome-wide association study analyses implicate neuronal, immune and histone pathways
O'Dushlaine, Colm, Rossin, Lizzy, Lee, Phil H., Duncan, Laramie, Parikshak, Neelroop N., Newhouse, Stephen, Ripke, Stephan, Neale, Benjamin M., Purcell, Shaun M., Posthuma, Danielle, Nurnberger, John I., Lee, S. Hong, Faraone, Stephen V., Perlis, Roy H., Mowry, Bryan J, Thapar, Anita, Goddard, Michael E., Witte, John S., Absher, Devin, Agartz, Ingrid, Akil, Huda, Amin, Farooq, Andreassen, Ole A., Anjorin, Adebayo, Anney, Richard, Anttila, Verneri, Arking, Dan E., Asherson, Philip, Azevedo, Maria H. ... Breen, Gerome (2015). Psychiatric genome-wide association study analyses implicate neuronal, immune and histone pathways. Nature Neuroscience, 18 (2), 199-209. doi: 10.1038/nn.3922
2015
Conference Publication
Early Career Psychiatrists Special Interest Group Symposium
Mills, N., Nelson, E., Scott, J., Whitfield, J., Martin, N., Wright, M., Wray, N., Byrne, E. and Martin, J. (2015). Early Career Psychiatrists Special Interest Group Symposium. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2015 Congress: Measurers and Thinkers: Psychiatry as Science and Art, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 3-15 May 2015. London, United Kingdom: Sage Publications. doi: 10.1177/0004867415578344
2015
Conference Publication
Using C-Reactive Protein Genetic Profile Scores to Predict Risk of Anxiety
Mills, N., Scott, J., Whitfield, J., Wright, M., Martin, N., Wray, N. and Byrne, E. (2015). Using C-Reactive Protein Genetic Profile Scores to Predict Risk of Anxiety. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2015 Congress: Measurers and Thinkers: Psychiatry as Science and Art, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 3-15 May 2015. London, United Kingdom: Sage Publications. doi: 10.1177/0004867415578344
2015
Journal Article
New data and an old puzzle: the negative association between schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis
Lee, S. Hong, Byrne, Enda M., Hultman, Christina M., Kahler, Anna, Vinkhuyzen, Anna A. E., Ripke, Stephan, Andreassen, Ole A., Frisell, Thomas, Gusev, Alexander, Hu, Xinli, Karlsson, Robert, Mantzioris, Vasilis X., McGrath, John J., Mehta, Divya, Stahl, Eli A., Zhao, Qiongyi, Kendler, Kenneth S., Sullivan, Patrick F., Price, Alkes L., O'Donovan, Michael, Okada, Yukinori, Mowry, Bryan J., Raychaudhuri, Soumya, Wray, Naomi R., Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Rheumatoid Arthritis Consortium International and Visscher, Peter M . (2015). New data and an old puzzle: the negative association between schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis. International Journal of Epidemiology, 44 (5) dyv136, 1-16. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyv136
2015
Conference Publication
Investigating the Relationship Between C-Reactive Protein Genetic Profile Scores and Depression
Mills, N., Nelson, E., Scott, J., Whitfield, J., Martin, N., Wright, M., Wray, N. and Byrne, E. (2015). Investigating the Relationship Between C-Reactive Protein Genetic Profile Scores and Depression. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2015 Congress: Measurers and Thinkers: Psychiatry as Science and Art, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 3-15 May 2015. London, United Kingdom: Sage Publications. doi: 10.1177/0004867415578344
2014
Journal Article
Novel loci associated with usual sleep duration: the CHARGE Consortium Genome-Wide Association Study
Gottlieb, D. J., Hek, K., Chen, T. H., Watson, N. F., Eiriksdottir, G., Byrne, E. M., Cornelis, M., Warby, S. C., Bandinelli, S., Cherkas, L., Evans, D. S., Grabe, H. J., Lahti, J., Li, M., Lehtimaki, T., Lumley, T., Marciante, K. D., Perusse, L., Psaty, B. M., Robbins, J., Tranah, G. J., Vink, J. M., Wilk, J. B., Stafford, J. M., Bellis, C., Biffar, R., Bouchard, C., Cade, B., Curhan, G. C. ... Tiemeier, H. (2014). Novel loci associated with usual sleep duration: the CHARGE Consortium Genome-Wide Association Study. Molecular Psychiatry, 20 (10), 1232-1239. doi: 10.1038/mp.2014.133
2014
Conference Publication
New Data to Investigate an Old Epidemiological Puzzle: The Negative Association Between Schizophrenia and Rheumatoid Arthritis
Byrne, Enda (2014). New Data to Investigate an Old Epidemiological Puzzle: The Negative Association Between Schizophrenia and Rheumatoid Arthritis. 53rd Annual Meeting of the American-College-of-Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), Phoenix Az, Dec 07-11, 2014. LONDON: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP.
2014
Journal Article
Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies six novel loci associated with habitual coffee consumption
The Coffee and Caffeine Genetics Consortium, Cornelis, M. C., Byrne, E. M., Esko, T., Nalls, M. A., Ganna, A., Paynter, N., Monda, K. L., Amin, N., Fischer, K., Renstrom, F., Ngwa, J. S., Huikari, V., Cavadino, A., Nolte, I. M., Teumer, A., Yu, K., Marques-Vidal, P., Rawa, R., Manichaikul, A., Wojczynski, M. K., Vink, J.,M., Zhao, J. H., Burlutsky, G., Lahti, J., Mikkila, V., Lemaitre,R. N., Eriksson, J., Musani, S. K. ... UK Brain Expression Consortium (UKBEC) (2014). Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies six novel loci associated with habitual coffee consumption. Molecular Psychiatry, 20 (5), 647-656. doi: 10.1038/mp.2014.107
2014
Journal Article
Parent-of-origin-specific allelic associations among 106 genomic loci for age at menarche
Perry, John R. B., Day, Felix, Elks, Cathy E., Sulem, Patrick, Thompson, Deborah J., Ferreira, Teresa, He, Chunyan, Chasman, Daniel I., Esko, Toenu, Thorleifsson, Gudmar, Albrecht, Eva, Ang, Wei Q., Corre, Tanguy, Cousminer, Diana L., Feenstra, Bjarke, Franceschini, Nora, Ganna, Andrea, Johnson, Andrew D., Kjellqvist, Sanela, Lunetta, Kathryn L., McMahon, George, Nolte, Ilja M., Paternoster, Lavinia, Porcu, Eleonora, Smith, Albert V., Stolk, Lisette, Teumer, Alexander, Tsernikova, Natalia, Tikkanen, Emmi ... Middeldorp, Christel (2014). Parent-of-origin-specific allelic associations among 106 genomic loci for age at menarche. Nature, 514 (7520), 92-97. doi: 10.1038/nature13545
2014
Journal Article
Applying polygenic risk scores to postpartum depression
Byrne, Edna M., Carrillo-Roa, Tania, Penninx, Brenda W. J. H., Sallis, Hannah M., Viktorin, Alexander, Chapman, Brett, Henders, Anjali K., Pergadia, Michele L., Heath, Andrew C., Madden, Pamela A. F., Sullivan, Patrick F., Boschloo, Lynn, van Grootheest, Gerard, McMahon, George, Lawlor, Debbie A., Landen, Mikael, Lichtenstein, Paul, Magnusson, Patrik K. E., Evans, David M., Montgomery, Grant W., Boomsma, Dorret I., Martin, Nicholas G., Meltzer-Brody, Samantha and Wray, Naomi R. (2014). Applying polygenic risk scores to postpartum depression. Archives of Women's Mental Health, 17 (6), 519-528. doi: 10.1007/s00737-014-0428-5
2014
Journal Article
Hypermethylation in the ZBTB20 gene is associated with major depressive disorder
Davies, Matthew N., Krause, Lutz, Bell, Jordana T., Gao, Fei, Ward, Kirsten J., Wu, Honglong, Lu, Hanlin, Liu, Yuan, Tsai, Pei-Chein, Collier, David A., Murphy, Therese, Dempster, Emma, Mill, Jonathan, UK Brain Expression Consortium, Battle, Alexis, Mostafavi, Sara, Zhu, Xiaowei, Henders, Anjali, Byrne, Enda, Wray, Naomi R., Martin, Nicholas G., Spector, Tim D. and Wang, Jun (2014). Hypermethylation in the ZBTB20 gene is associated with major depressive disorder. Genome Biology, 15 (4) R56, R56.1-R56.12. doi: 10.1186/gb-2014-15-4-r56
2014
Journal Article
Genetic risk score analysis indicates migraine with and without comorbid depression are genetically different disorders
Ligthart, Lannie, Hottenga, Jouke-Jan, Lewis, Cathryn M., Farmer, Anne E., Craig, Ian W., Breen, Gerome, Willemsen, Gonneke, Vink, Jacqueline M., Middeldorp, Christel M., Byrne, Enda M., Heath, Andrew C., Madden, Pamela A. F., Pergadia, Michele L., Montgomery, Grant W., Martin, Nicholas G., Penninx, Brenda W. J. H., McGuffin, Peter, Boomsma, Dorret I. and Nyholt, Dale R. (2014). Genetic risk score analysis indicates migraine with and without comorbid depression are genetically different disorders. Human Genetics, 133 (2), 173-186. doi: 10.1007/s00439-013-1370-8
2014
Book Chapter
Future directions in genetics of psychiatric disorders
Wray, Naomi R., Byrne, Enda M., Stringer, Sven and Mowry, Bryan J. (2014). Future directions in genetics of psychiatric disorders. Behavior genetics of psychopathology. (pp. 311-337) edited by Soo Hyun Rhee and Angelica Ronald. New York, NY, United States: Springer New York. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-9509-3_11
2014
Journal Article
Testing the role of circadian genes in conferring risk for psychiatric disorders
Byrne, Enda M., Heath, Andrew C., Madden, Pamela A. F., Pergadia, Michele L., Hickie, Ian B., Montgomery, Grant W., Martin, Nicholas G. and Wray, Naomi R. (2014). Testing the role of circadian genes in conferring risk for psychiatric disorders. American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 165 (3), 254-260. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32230
2013
Journal Article
Genetic relationship between five psychiatric disorders estimated from genome-wide SNPs
Lee, S. Hong, Ripke, Stephan, Neale, Benjamin M., Faraone, Stephen V., Purcell, Shaun M., Perlis, Roy H., Mowry, Bryan J., Thapar, Anita, Goddard, Michael E., Witte, John S., Absher, Devin, Agartz, Ingrid, Akil, Huda, Amin, Farooq, Andreassen, Ole A., Anjorin, Adebayo, Anney, Richard, Anttila, Verneri, Arking, Dan E., Asherson, Philip, Azevedo, Maria H., Backlund, Lena, Badner, Judith A., Bailey, Anthony J., Banaschewski, Tobias, Barchas, Jack D., Barnes, Michael R., Barrett, Thomas B., Bass, Nicholas ... Wray, Naomi R. (2013). Genetic relationship between five psychiatric disorders estimated from genome-wide SNPs. Nature Genetics, 45 (9), 984-995. doi: 10.1038/ng.2711
2013
Journal Article
The role of genes in the insomnia phenotype
Gehrman, Philip R., Pfeiffenberger, Cory and Byrne, Enda M. (2013). The role of genes in the insomnia phenotype. Sleep Medicine Clinics, 8 (3), 323-331. doi: 10.1016/j.jsmc.2013.04.005
2013
Journal Article
Association of adiposity genetic variants with menarche timing in 92,105 women of European descent
Fernández-Rhodes, Lindsay, Demerath, Ellen W., Cousminer, Diana L., Tao, Ran, Dreyfus, Jill G., Esko, Tõnu, Smith, Albert V., Gudnason, Vilmundur, Harris, Tamara B., Launer, Lenore, McArdle, Patrick F., Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M., Elks, Cathy E., Strachan, David P., Kutalik, Zoltán, Vollenweider, Peter, Feenstra, Bjarke, Boyd, Heather A., Metspalu, Andres, Mihailov, Evelin, Broer, Linda, Zillikens, M. Carola, Oostra, Ben, van Duijn, Cornelia M., Lunetta, Kathryn L., Perry, John R. B., Murray, Anna, Koller, Daniel L., Lai, Dongbing ... Franceschini, Nora (2013). Association of adiposity genetic variants with menarche timing in 92,105 women of European descent. American Journal of Epidemiology, 178 (3), 451-460. doi: 10.1093/aje/kws473
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Enda Byrne is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Available projects
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Gene Environment interactions in Mental health trajectories of Youth (Youth-GEMs)
Mental health problems are common in young people, with life-long enduring impacts on individuals, families and societies. More than 63% of mental disorders throughout the life span emerge before 24 years of age, peaking at 14.5-18 years. Adolescence and young adulthood represent a critical period that forecasts the level of mental wellbeing over lifetime and interventions early in life may be critical in preventing later mental illness.
The Child and Youth Mental Health Group is part of an Australian and European Union-funded consortium called Youth-GEMs that seeks to characterise and model trajectories of mental health in youth. In collaboration with researchers from universities in Europe, this project will combine datasets from longitudinal cohort studies from around the world to investigate the interplay between genetic, epigenetic, and environmental risk in influencing mental health across development.
This project will involve advanced data analytics and statistical inference and will involve combining and analysing different types of data including genetic, clinical and environmental data. The ultimate goal is to develop predictive tools that can be used to aid clinical decision-making in youth mental health.
We are seeking a motivated PhD scholar with a background in genetics, biomedical science, psychology, data science, machine learning or a related field to join our team and work closely with collaborators overseas on this project. There is also the possibility to spend time overseas at one of the collaborating labs.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Genetics of childhood onset psychiatric symptoms, their persistence and comorbidity with other traits
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Naomi Wray
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Doctor Philosophy
Genetics of Neurodevelopmental Disorders and associated comorbidities
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Allan McRae
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Doctor Philosophy
Gene Environment interactions in Mental health trajectories of Youth
Principal Advisor
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Doctor Philosophy
ELUCIDATING LIFESTYLE AND GENETIC FACTORS UNDERLYING DEPRESSION HETEROGENEITY AND TREATMENT RESPONSE
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Naomi Wray
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Doctor Philosophy
Multi-Omic Analyses of a Clinical Trial Cohort of Young People at Ultra-High Risk for Psychosis
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Allan McRae, Professor Naomi Wray
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
The Genomics of Perinatal Depression
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Naomi Wray
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Embracing Complexity in Psychiatric Genetics: Investigating Heterogeneity and Pleiotropy in Depression and Major Psychiatric Disorders
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Honorary Professor Sarah Medland
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2022
Doctor Philosophy
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Sleep and Internalising Symptoms in Adolescence
Associate Advisor
Media
Enquiries
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