Dr Enda Byrne
Dr

Enda Byrne

Email: 

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

  • Genomic Technologies

  • 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.

Search Professor Enda Byrne’s works on UQ eSpace

196 works between 2007 and 2025
All (196) Journal Article (149) Book Chapter (1) Conference Publication (31) Other Outputs (15)

161 - 180 of 196 works

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

Parent-of-origin-specific allelic associations among 106 genomic loci for age at menarche

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

Applying polygenic risk scores to postpartum depression

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

Hypermethylation in the ZBTB20 gene is associated with major depressive disorder

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

Genetic risk score analysis indicates migraine with and without comorbid depression are genetically different disorders

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

Testing the role of circadian genes in conferring risk for psychiatric disorders

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

Future directions in genetics of psychiatric disorders

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

The role of genes in the insomnia phenotype

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

Genetic relationship between five psychiatric disorders estimated from genome-wide SNPs

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

Association of adiposity genetic variants with menarche timing in 92,105 women of European descent

2013

Journal Article

Genome-wide association and longitudinal analyses reveal genetic loci linking pubertal height growth, pubertal timing and childhood adiposity

Cousminer D.L., Berry D.J., Timpson N.J., Ang W., Thiering E., Byrne E.M., Rob Taal H., Huikari V., Bradfield J.P., Kerkhof M., Groen-Blokhuis M.M., Kreiner-Moller E., Marinelli M., Holst C., Leinonen J.T., Perry J.R.B., Surakka I., Pietilainen O., Kettunen J., Anttila V., Kaakinen M., Sovio U., Pouta A., Das S., Lagou V., Power C., Prokopenko I., Evans D.M., Kemp J.P. ... Middeldorp, Christel (2013). Genome-wide association and longitudinal analyses reveal genetic loci linking pubertal height growth, pubertal timing and childhood adiposity. Human Molecular Genetics, 22 (13), 2735-2747. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddt104

Genome-wide association and longitudinal analyses reveal genetic loci linking pubertal height growth, pubertal timing and childhood adiposity

2013

Journal Article

Monozygotic twins affected with major depressive disorder have greater variance in methylation than their unaffected co-twin

Byrne, E. M., Carrillo-Roa, T., Henders, A. K., Bowdler, L., McRae, A. F., Heath, A. C., Martin, N. G., Montgomery, G. W., Krause, L. and Wray, N. R. (2013). Monozygotic twins affected with major depressive disorder have greater variance in methylation than their unaffected co-twin. Translational Psychiatry, 3 (6) e269, e269.1-e269.6. doi: 10.1038/tp.2013.45

Monozygotic twins affected with major depressive disorder have greater variance in methylation than their unaffected co-twin

2013

Journal Article

A genome-wide association study of sleep habits and insomnia

Byrne, Enda M., Gehrman, Philip R., Medland, Sarah E., Nyholt, Dale R., Heath, Andrew C., Madden, Pamela A. F., Hickie, Ian B., Van Duijn, Cornelia M., Henders, Anjali K., Montgomery, Grant W., Martin, Nicholas G., Wray, Naomi R. and The Chronogen Consortium (2013). A genome-wide association study of sleep habits and insomnia. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 162 (5), 439-451. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32168

A genome-wide association study of sleep habits and insomnia

2013

Journal Article

A mega-analysis of genome-wide association studies for major depressive disorder

Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric GWAS Consortium, Wray, Naomi, Byrne, Enda M., Martin, Nicholas G., Gordon, Scott D., Henders, Anjali K., Montgomery, Grant M., Nyholt, Dale R. and Middeldorp, Christel M. (2013). A mega-analysis of genome-wide association studies for major depressive disorder. Molecular Psychiatry, 18 (4), 497-511. doi: 10.1038/mp.2012.21

A mega-analysis of genome-wide association studies for major depressive disorder

2013

Journal Article

Selected rapporteur summaries from the XX world congress of psychiatric genetics, Hamburg, Germany, October 14-18, 2012

Anderson-Schmidt, Heike, Beltcheva, Olga, Brandon, Mariko D., Byrne, Enda M., Diehl, Eric J., Duncan, Laramie, Gonzalez, Suzanne D., Hannon, Eilis, Kantojarvi, Katri, Karagiannidis, Iordanis, Kos, Mark Z., Kotyuk, Eszter, Laufer, Benjamin I., Mantha, Katarzyna, McGregor, Nathaniel W., Meier, Sandra, Nieratschker, Vanessa, Spiers, Helen, Squassina, Alessio, Thakur, Geeta A., Tiwari, Yash, Viswanath, Biju, Way, Michael J., Wong, Cybele C. P., O'Shea, Anne and DeLisi, Lynn E. (2013). Selected rapporteur summaries from the XX world congress of psychiatric genetics, Hamburg, Germany, October 14-18, 2012. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B-Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 162 (2), 96-121. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32132

Selected rapporteur summaries from the XX world congress of psychiatric genetics, Hamburg, Germany, October 14-18, 2012

2012

Journal Article

Modeling the direction of causation between cross-sectional measures of disrupted sleep, anxiety and depression in a sample of male and female Australian twins

Gillespie, Nathan A., Gehrman, Philip, Byrne, Enda M., Kendler, Kenneth S., Heath, Andrew C. and Martin, Nicholas G. (2012). Modeling the direction of causation between cross-sectional measures of disrupted sleep, anxiety and depression in a sample of male and female Australian twins. Journal of Sleep Research, 21 (6), 675-683. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2869.2012.01026.x

Modeling the direction of causation between cross-sectional measures of disrupted sleep, anxiety and depression in a sample of male and female Australian twins

2012

Journal Article

Multi-locus genome-wide association analysis supports the role of glutamatergic synaptic transmission in the etiology of major depressive disorder

Lee, P. H., Perlis, R. H., Jung, J-Y, Byrne, E. M., Rueckert, E., Siburian, R., Haddad, S., Mayerfeld, C. E., Heath, A. C., Pergadia, M. L., Madden, P. A. F., Boomsma, D. I., Penninx, B. W., Sklar, P., Martin, N. G., Wray, N. R., Purcell, S. M. and Smoller, J. W. (2012). Multi-locus genome-wide association analysis supports the role of glutamatergic synaptic transmission in the etiology of major depressive disorder. Translational Psychiatry, 2 (11) e184, e184.1-e184.9. doi: 10.1038/tp.2012.95

Multi-locus genome-wide association analysis supports the role of glutamatergic synaptic transmission in the etiology of major depressive disorder

2012

Journal Article

Unraveling the genetic etiology of adult antisocial behavior: a genome-wide association study

Tielbeek, Jorim J., Medland, Sarah E., Benyamin, Beben, Byrne, Enda M., Heath, Andrew C., Madden, Pamela A. F., Martin, Nicholas G., Wray, Naomi R. and Verweij, Karin J. H. (2012). Unraveling the genetic etiology of adult antisocial behavior: a genome-wide association study. PLoS One, 7 (10) e45086, e1005378-e1005378. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045086

Unraveling the genetic etiology of adult antisocial behavior: a genome-wide association study

2012

Journal Article

Variation in Genes Related to Cochlear Biology Is Strongly Associated with Adult-Onset Deafness in Border Collies

Yokoyama, Jennifer S., Lam, Ernest T., Ruhe, Alison L., Erdman, Carolyn A., Robertson, Kathryn R., Webb, Aubrey A., Williams, D. Colette, Chang, Melanie L., Hytonen, Marjo K., Lohi, Hannes, Hamilton, Steven P. and Neff, Mark W. (2012). Variation in Genes Related to Cochlear Biology Is Strongly Associated with Adult-Onset Deafness in Border Collies. Plos Genetics, 8 (9) e1002898. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002898

Variation in Genes Related to Cochlear Biology Is Strongly Associated with Adult-Onset Deafness in Border Collies

2012

Journal Article

A genome-wide association study of caffeine-related sleep disturbance: confirmation of a role for a common variant in the adenosine receptor

Byrne, Enda M., Johnson, Julie, McRae, Allan F., Nyholt, Dale R., Medland, Sarah E., Gehrman, Philip R., Heath, Andrew C., Madden, Pamela A. F., Montgomery, Grant W., Chenevix-Trench, Georgia and Martin, Nicholas G. (2012). A genome-wide association study of caffeine-related sleep disturbance: confirmation of a role for a common variant in the adenosine receptor. Sleep, 35 (7), 967-975. doi: 10.5665/sleep.1962

A genome-wide association study of caffeine-related sleep disturbance: confirmation of a role for a common variant in the adenosine receptor

2012

Journal Article

Introduction: What is a 'gene' and why does it matter for political science?

Hatemi, Peter K., Byrne, Enda and McDermott, Rose (2012). Introduction: What is a 'gene' and why does it matter for political science?. Journal of Theoretical Politics, 24 (3), 305-327. doi: 10.1177/0951629812437752

Introduction: What is a 'gene' and why does it matter for political science?

Current funding

  • 2023 - 2027
    Enabling pharmacogenomics in the Australian context: improving the accuracy of clinical utility and cost effectiveness analyses (MRFF externally administered by QIMR)
    Queensland Institute of Medical Research
    Open grant
  • 2022 - 2027
    Youth-GEMs: Gene Environment interactions in Mental health trajectories of Youth
    NHMRC European Union Collaborative Research Grants
    Open grant
  • 2022 - 2027
    Gene Environment interactions in Mental health trajectories of Youth - YOUTH-GEMs (EU grant administered by Maastricht University)
    Maastricht University
    Open grant
  • 2020 - 2025
    Australian Pharmacogenomics Diversity Project: Examining the evidence and improving the performance of pharmacogenomics in the Australian context (MRFF grant administered by QIMR Berghofer)
    Queensland Institute of Medical Research
    Open grant

Past funding

  • 2019 - 2024
    Postpartum Depression: Action Towards Causes and Treatment
    Research Donation Generic
    Open grant
  • 2018 - 2022
    Postpartum Depression: Action Towards Causes and Treatment
    NHMRC Project Grant
    Open grant
  • 2015 - 2019
    Tackling heterogeneity in the etiology of major depressive disorder (NHMRC Project Grant administered by QIMR)
    Queensland Institute of Medical Research
    Open grant
  • 2014 - 2017
    Discovering deep sleep genes and determining their roles for preserving cognitive functions
    NHMRC Project Grant
    Open grant
  • 2013 - 2017
    NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (CJ Martin - Overseas Biomedical Fellowship): Using new genomic technologies, statistical and computational methods to uncover the genetic aetiology of complex traits
    NHMRC Training (Postdoctoral) Fellowship
    Open grant

Availability

Dr Enda Byrne is:
Available for supervision

Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.

Available projects

  • 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

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Genetics of childhood onset psychiatric symptoms, their persistence and comorbidity with other traits

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Naomi Wray

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Genetics of Neurodevelopmental Disorders and associated comorbidities

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Allan McRae

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Gene Environment interactions in Mental health trajectories of Youth

    Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy

    ELUCIDATING LIFESTYLE AND GENETIC FACTORS UNDERLYING DEPRESSION HETEROGENEITY AND TREATMENT RESPONSE

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Naomi Wray

  • 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

Enquiries

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