Overview
Background
Dr Nicole Warrington is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the University of Queensland Institute for Molecular Bioscience. She has a strong background in statistical genetics and has been actively working towards understanding the genetic determinants of early life growth. Dr Warrington studied a Bachelor of Science at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, majoring in Mathematical Statistics and Psychology. She then completed an honours degree at The University of Western Australia, where she developed a keen interest for genetics, and was subsequently awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award to complete her PhD in statistical genetics and life-course epidemiology. During her PhD she spent time at the University of Toronto to gain experience in statistical modelling methods for longitudinal growth trajectories and conducted the first genome-wide association study of longitudinal growth trajectories over childhood. After completing her PhD, Dr Warrington started at the University of Queensland and focused on using genetics to inform about the relationship between birth weight and cardio-metabolic diseases in later life. She pioneered a new statistical method to partition genetic effects on birth weight into maternal and fetal components, and combined this method with a causal modelling approach, Mendelian randomization. This method was instrumental in demonstrating the relationship between birth weight and adult hypertension is driven by genetic effects, over-turning 30 years of research into the effects of intrauterine programming. More recently, her research focus has broadened to determine whether rapid weight growth across early life, including fetal development, childhood and adolescence, causally increases risk of cardio-metabolic disease and in doing so, hopes to identify optimal times across the life-course where interventions could reduce the incidence of cardio-metabolic diseases.
Availability
- Dr Nicole Warrington is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Western Australia
Research interests
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Developmental origins of health and disease
The development of obesity often occurs in early life and tends to persist into adulthood. Unfavourable growth in early life is also associated with adverse cardio-metabolic outcomes in later life, such as type two diabetes and heart disease. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this relationship is a vital step in combating these lifestyle diseases and evaluating the likely success of early interventions. This research aims to address the following questions: (a) What maternal characteristics modify the early life environment and cause rapid early life weight growth in her offspring? (b) Is there a time period in early life where rapid weight growth causes increased risk of cardio-metabolic disease in later life, independent of adult obesity? Dr Warrington is a leading member of the Early Growth Genetics (EGG) consortium, which brings together studies from around the world with growth related phenotypes and genetic data in order to conduct large-scale genetic research. The EGG consortium have conducted several large genome-wide association studies of growth phenotypes, which are published in high impact journals including Nature and Nature Genetics. The results from these genome-wide association studies are then used to perform causal modelling to help disentangle the relationship between childhood growth and later life cardio-metabolic disease risk.
Works
Search Professor Nicole Warrington’s works on UQ eSpace
2019
Conference Publication
Using Mendelian randomization to estimate the causal effect of maternal (intrauterine) exposures on late onset offspring outcomes
Evans, David, Warrington, Nicole, Partida, Gabriel Cuellar and Hwang, Daniel (2019). Using Mendelian randomization to estimate the causal effect of maternal (intrauterine) exposures on late onset offspring outcomes. 49th Annual Meeting of the Behavior Genetics Association (BGA), Stockholm, Sweden, 26-29 June, 2019. New York, NY, United States: Springer New York LLC. doi: 10.1007/s10519-019-09973-8
2018
Journal Article
Antibody response to common human viruses is shaped by genetic factors
Hayward, Tanisha A., Zhu, Gu, Warrington, Nicole M., Wong, Yide, Ryan, Rachael Y.M., Murray, Abella M., Haigh, Oscar, Martin, Nicholas G., Miles, John J. and Evans, David M. (2018). Antibody response to common human viruses is shaped by genetic factors. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 143 (4), 1640-1643. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2018.11.039
2018
Journal Article
Genome-wide association study identifies nine novel loci for 2D:4D finger ratio, a putative retrospective biomarker of testosterone exposure in utero
Warrington, Nicole M., Shevroja, Enisa, Hemani, Gibran, Hysi, Pirro G., Jiang, Yunxuan, Auton, Adam, Boer, Cindy G., Mangino, Massimo, Wang, Carol A., Kemp, John P., McMahon, George, Medina-Gomez, Carolina, Hickey, Martha, Trajanoska, Katerina, Wolke, Dieter, Ikram, Arfan M., 23 and Me Research Team, Montgomery, Grant W., Felix, Janine F., Wright, Margaret J., Mackey, David A., Jaddoe, Vincent W., Martin, Nicholas G., Tung, Joyce Y., Davey Smith, George, Pennell, Craig E., Spector, Tim D., van Meurs, Joyce, Rivadeneira, Fernando ... Evans, David M. (2018). Genome-wide association study identifies nine novel loci for 2D:4D finger ratio, a putative retrospective biomarker of testosterone exposure in utero. Human Molecular Genetics, 27 (11), 2025-2038. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddy121
2018
Journal Article
Genome-wide association study of offspring birth weight in 86,577 women identifies five novel loci and highlights maternal genetic effects that are independent of fetal genetics
Beaumont, Robin N., Warrington, Nicole M., Cavadino, Alana, Tyrrell, Jessica, Nodzenski, Michael, Horikoshi, Momoko, Geller, Frank, Myhre, Ronny, Richmond, Rebecca C., Paternoster, Lavinia, Bradfield, Jonathan P., Kreiner-Møller, Eskil, Huikari, Ville, Metrustry, Sarah, Lunetta, Kathryn L., Painter, Jodie N., Hottenga, Jouke-Jan, Allard, Catherine, Barton, Sheila J., Espinosa, Ana, Marsh, Julie A., Potter, Catherine, Zhang, Ge, Ang, Wei, Berry, Diane J., Bouchard, Luigi, Das, Shikta, Early Growth Genetics (EGG) Consortium, Hakonarson, Hakon ... Freathy, Rachel M. (2018). Genome-wide association study of offspring birth weight in 86,577 women identifies five novel loci and highlights maternal genetic effects that are independent of fetal genetics. Human Molecular Genetics, 27 (4) ddx429, 742-756. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddx429
2018
Journal Article
Using structural equation modelling to jointly estimate maternal and fetal effects on birthweight in the UK Biobank
Warrington, Nicole M., Freathy, Rachel M., Neale, Michael C. and Evans, David M. (2018). Using structural equation modelling to jointly estimate maternal and fetal effects on birthweight in the UK Biobank. International Journal of Epidemiology, 47 (4), 1229-1241. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyy015
2018
Conference Publication
Maternal and fetal genetic effects on birth weight and their relevance to cardio-metabolic disease
Beaumont, Robin N., Warrington, Nicole M., Horikoshi, Momoko, Day, Felix R., Ong, Ken K., McCarthy, Mark I., Perry, John R. B., Freathy, Rachel M. and Evans, David M. (2018). Maternal and fetal genetic effects on birth weight and their relevance to cardio-metabolic disease. 27th Annual Meeting of the International-Genetic-Epidemiology-Society (IGES), San Diego, Ca, United States, 14-16 October 2018. Hoboken, NJ, United States: John Wiley & Sons.
2017
Journal Article
Maternal and fetal genetic contribution to gestational weight gain
Warrington, N. M., Richmond, R., Fenstra, B., Myhre, R., Gaillard, R., Paternoster, L., Wang, C. A., Beaumont, R. N., Das, S., Murcia, M., Barton, S. J., Espinosa, A., Thiering, E., Atalay, M., Pitkänen, N., Ntalla, I., Jonsson, A. E., Freathy, R., Karhunen, V., Tiesler, C. M. T., Allard, C., Crawford, A., Ring, S. M., Melbye, M., Magnus, P., Rivadeneira, F., Skotte, L., Hansen, T., Marsh, J. ... Lawlor, D. A. (2017). Maternal and fetal genetic contribution to gestational weight gain. International Journal of Obesity (2005), 42 (4), 775-784. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2017.248
2017
Journal Article
Identification of 153 new loci associated with heel bone mineral density and functional involvement of GPC6 in osteoporosis
Kemp, John P., Morris, John A., Medina-Gomez, Carolina, Forgetta, Vincenzo, Warrington, Nicole M., Youlten, Scott E., Zheng, Jie, Gregson, Celia L., Grundberg, Elin, Trajanoska, Katerina, Logan, John G., Pollard, Andrea S., Sparkes, Penny C., Ghirardello, Elena J., Allen, Rebecca, Leitch, Victoria D., Butterfield, Natalie C., Komla-Ebri, Davide, Adoum, Anne-Tounsia, Curry, Katharine F., White, Jacqueline K., Kussy, Fiona, Greenlaw, Keelin M., Xu, Changjiang, Harvey, Nicholas C., Cooper, Cyrus, Adams, David J., Greenwood, Celia M. T., Maurano, Matthew T. ... Evans, David M. (2017). Identification of 153 new loci associated with heel bone mineral density and functional involvement of GPC6 in osteoporosis. Nature Genetics, 49 (10), 1468-1475. doi: 10.1038/ng.3949
2017
Journal Article
Large-scale GWAS identifies multiple loci for hand grip strength providing biological insights into muscular fitness
Willems, Sara M., Wright, Daniel J., Day, Felix R., Trajanoska, Katerina, Joshi, Peter K., Morris, John A., Matteini, Amy M., Garton, Fleur C., Grarup, Niels, Oskolkov, Nikolay, Thalamuthu, Anbupalam, Mangino, Massimo, Liu, Jun, Demirkan, Ayse, Lek, Monkol, Xu, Liwen, Wang, Guan, Oldmeadow, Christopher, Gaulton, Kyle J., Lotta, Luca A., Miyamoto-Mikami, Eri, Rivas, Manuel A., White, Tom, Loh, Po-Ru, Aadahl, Mette, Amin, Najaf, Attia, John R., Austin, Krista, Benyamin, Beben ... Ohlsson, Claes (2017). Large-scale GWAS identifies multiple loci for hand grip strength providing biological insights into muscular fitness. Nature Communications, 8 (1) 16015, 16015. doi: 10.1038/ncomms16015
2017
Other Outputs
Maternal and fetal genetic contribution to gestational weight gain
Warrington, Nicole M, Richmond, Rebecca, Fenstra, Bjarke, Myhre, Ronny, Gaillard, Romy, Paternoster, Lavinia, Wang, Carol A, Beaumont, Robin N, Das, Shikta, Murcia, Mario, Barton, Sheila J, Espinosa, Ana, Theiring, Elisabeth, Atalay, Mustafa, Pitkänen, Niina, Ntalla, Ioanna, Jonsson, Anna E, Freathy, Rachel, Karhunen, Ville, Tiesler, Carla MT, Allard, Catherine, Crawford, Andrew, Ring, Susan M, Melbye, Mads, Magnus, Per, Rivadeneira, Fernando, Skotte, Line, Hansen, Torben, Marsh, Julie ... consortium, Early Growth Genetics (2017). Maternal and fetal genetic contribution to gestational weight gain. doi: 10.1101/116434
2017
Journal Article
Using Mendelian randomization to determine causal effects of maternal pregnancy (intrauterine) exposures on offspring outcomes: Sources of bias and methods for assessing them
Lawlor, Deborah, Richmond, Rebecca, Warrington, Nicole , McMahon, George, Davery Smith, George, Bowden, Jack and Evans, David M. (2017). Using Mendelian randomization to determine causal effects of maternal pregnancy (intrauterine) exposures on offspring outcomes: Sources of bias and methods for assessing them. Wellcome Open Research, 2 (11) 11, 11. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.10567.1
2017
Journal Article
Shared genetic variants suggest common pathways in allergy and autoimmune diseases
Kreiner, Eskil, Waage, Johannes, Standl, Marie, Brix, Susanne, Pers, Tune H., Couto Alves, Alexessander, Warrington, Nicole M., Tiesler, Carla M. T., Fuertes, Elaine, Franke, Lude, Hirschhorn, Joel N., James, Alan, Simpson, Angela, Tung, Joyce Y., Koppelman, Gerard H., Postma, Dirkje S., Pennell, Craig E., Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta, Custovic, Adnan, Timpson, Nicholas, Ferreira, Manuel A., Strachan, David P., Henderson, John, Hinds, David, Bisgaard, Hans and Bønnelykke, Klaus (2017). Shared genetic variants suggest common pathways in allergy and autoimmune diseases. Allergy: European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 140 (3), 771-781. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2016.10.055
2017
Journal Article
LD Hub: a centralized database and web interface to perform LD score regression that maximizes the potential of summary level GWAS data for SNP heritability and genetic correlation analysis
Zheng, Jie, Erzurumluoglu, A. Mesut, Elsworth, Benjamin L., Kemp, John P., Howe, Laurence, Haycock, Philip C., Hemani, Gibran, Tansey, Katherine, Laurin, Charles, St Pourcain, Beate, Warrington, Nicole M., Finucane, Hilary K., Price, Alkes L., Bulik-Sullivan, Brendan K., Anttila, Verneri, Paternoster, Lavinia, Gaunt, Tom R., Evans, David M. and Neale, Benjamin M. (2017). LD Hub: a centralized database and web interface to perform LD score regression that maximizes the potential of summary level GWAS data for SNP heritability and genetic correlation analysis. Bioinformatics, 33 (2), 272-279. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btw613
2017
Conference Publication
Performing Mendelian randomization using structural equation models
Evans, David and Warrington, Nicole (2017). Performing Mendelian randomization using structural equation models. 47th Annual Meeting of the Behavior-Genetics-Association (BGA), Oslo Norway, 28 June - 1 July 2017. New York NY United States: Springer.
2016
Conference Publication
Genome-wide association study of 6,939 individuals identifies five novel loci and suggests that prenatal exposure to testosterone is not a major determinant of individual differences in 2D:4D finger ratio
Warrington, Nicole, Hemani, Gibran, Hysi, Pirro, Mangino, Massimo, McMahon, George, Hickey, Martha, Wolke, Dieter, Montgomery, Grant, Pennell, Craig, Spector, Tim, Martin, Nicholas, Medland, Sarah and Evans, David (2016). Genome-wide association study of 6,939 individuals identifies five novel loci and suggests that prenatal exposure to testosterone is not a major determinant of individual differences in 2D:4D finger ratio. 46th Annual Meeting of the Behavior-Genetics-Association, Brisbane Australia, Jun 20-23, 2016. NEW YORK: SPRINGER.
2016
Conference Publication
Locus Discovery in Genome-wide Association Studies using Bivariate Analysis
Warrington, Nicole M. and Evans, David M. (2016). Locus Discovery in Genome-wide Association Studies using Bivariate Analysis. Annual Meeting of the International-Genetic-Epidemiology-Society, Toronto Canada, Oct 24-26, 2016. HOBOKEN: WILEY-BLACKWELL.
2016
Conference Publication
LD hub and MR-base: online platforms for preforming LD score regression and Mendelian randomization analysis using GWAS summary data
Zheng, Jie, Haycock, Philip, Hemani, Gibran, Elsworth, Benjamin, Shihab, Hashem, Laurin, Charles, Erzurumluoglu, Mesut, Howe, Laurence, Wade, Kaitlin, Warrington, Nicole, Finucane, Hilary, Price, Alkes, Anttila, Verneri, Paternoster, Lavinia, Martin, Richard, Relton, Caroline, Gaunt, Tom, Smith, George Davey, Neale, Benjamin and Evans, David (2016). LD hub and MR-base: online platforms for preforming LD score regression and Mendelian randomization analysis using GWAS summary data. 46th Annual Meeting of the Behavior-Genetics-Association, Brisbane Australia, Jun 20-23, 2016. NEW YORK: SPRINGER.
2016
Journal Article
Genome-wide associations for birth weight and correlations with adult disease
Horikoshi, Momoko, Beaumont, Robin N., Day, Felix R., Warrington, Nicole M., Kooijman, Marjolein N., Fernandez-Tajes, Juan, Feenstra, Bjarke, van Zuydam, Natalie R., Gaulton, Kyle J., Grarup, Niels, Bradfield, Jonathan P., Strachan, David P., Li-Gao, Ruifang, Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S., Kreiner, Eskil, Rueedi, Rico, Lyytikainen, Leo-Pekka, Cousminer, Diana L., Wu, Ying, Thiering, Elisabeth, Wang, Carol A., Have, Christian T., Hottenga, Jouke-Jan, Vilor-Tejedor, Natalia, Joshi, Peter K., Boh, Eileen Tai Hui, Ntalla, Ioanna, Pitkanen, Niina, Mahajan, Anubha ... Freathy, Rachel M. (2016). Genome-wide associations for birth weight and correlations with adult disease. Nature, 538 (7624), 248-252. doi: 10.1038/nature19806
2015
Other Outputs
Genome-wide association study of offspring birth weight in 86,577 women highlights maternal genetic effects that are independent of fetal genetics
Beaumont, Robin N, Warrington, Nicole M, Cavadino, Alana, Tyrrell, Jessica, Nodzenski, Michael, Horikoshi, Momoko, Geller, Frank, Myhre, Ronny, Richmond, Rebecca C., Paternoster, Lavinia, Bradfield, Jonathan P., Kreiner-Møller, Eskil, Huikari, Ville, Metrustry, Sarah, Lunetta, Kathryn L., Painter, Jodie N., Hottenga, Jouke-Jan, Allard, Catherine, Barton, Sheila J., Espinosa, Ana, Marsh, Julie A., Potter, Catherine, Zhang, Ge, Ang, Wei, Berry, Diane J., Bouchard, Luigi, Das, Shikta, Consortium, Early Growth Genetics, Hakonarson, Hakon ... Freathy, Rachel M. (2015). Genome-wide association study of offspring birth weight in 86,577 women highlights maternal genetic effects that are independent of fetal genetics. doi: 10.1101/034207
2015
Conference Publication
Shared genetic origins of allergy and autoimmune diseases
Waage, J. E., Kreiner-Moller, E., Standl, M., Brix, S., Pers, T. H., Alves, A. C., Warrington, N. M., Tiesler, C. M., Fuertes, E., Franke, L., Hirschhorn, J. N., James, A., Simpson, A., Tung, J. Y., Koppelman, G. H., Postma, D. S., Pennel, C. E., Jarvelin, M-R, Custovic, A., Timpson, N., Ferreira, M. A., Strachan, D. P., Hinds, D., Bisgaard, H. and Bonnelykke, K. (2015). Shared genetic origins of allergy and autoimmune diseases. Congress of the European-Academy-of-Allergy-and-Clinical-Immunology, Barcelona Spain, Jun 06-10, 2015. HOBOKEN: WILEY-BLACKWELL.
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Nicole Warrington is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Using multi-omics approaches to characterise determinants of early growth trajectories and their consequences on later life health
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Honorary Professor Jake Gratten, Professor David Evans
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Doctor Philosophy
Identifying genetic and cellular determinants of musculoskeletal disorders
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr John Kemp
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Doctor Philosophy
Identifying genetic and cellular determinants of musculoskeletal disorders
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr John Kemp
-
Doctor Philosophy
Investigating the time and tissue dependent genetic architecture of complex traits
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Loic Yengo
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Doctor Philosophy
Developing and Applying Statistical Genetics Methods to Elucidate the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor David Evans
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Doctor Philosophy
Using single cell transcriptomics, gene-mapping, and animal models to accelerate drug discovery for patients with osteoporosis
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr John Kemp
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Doctor Philosophy
Investigating the time and tissue dependent genetic architecture of complex traits
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Loic Yengo
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Using Genetics to Understand the Relationship Between the Intrauterine Environment and Future Offspring Cardiometabolic Risk
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor David Evans
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2019
Doctor Philosophy
Detecting and Quantifying the Effect of Assortative mating and Maternal Effects on Statistical Genetics Analyses
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor David Evans
Media
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