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Genetics of mental health (new research)

We are using the genetic model organism, C. elegans, do investigate the genetic basis of both normal and disordered behaviour. Our current interests are identifying the genes responsible for anxiety and depression as well as the genes for eating disoders and addiction. Using C. elegans as a model organism will also allow us to study gene function as it relates to behaviour.

Molecular mechanisms of phosphine resistance (other research)

Genetic mapping of oxidative stress resistance genes. The fumigant phosphine disrupts oxidative metabolism, resulting in the production of reactive oxygen intermediates. This causes the premature ageing and death of targeted pests. Insect pests of stored grain in Australia now exhibit resistance to phosphine at levels more than 200 times the normal lethal dose.

We have genetically mappedf and identified the genes responsible for phosphine resistance in tall major insect pests of stored grain. We are using a systems biology approach in the model organism C. elegans to understand the molecular basis of phosphine action. Our genetic studies have recently shown that resistance to phosphine is associated with an extension of lifespan

Professor Diann (Di) Eley is the Director of MD Student Research and Chair of the UQ Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC B). Di became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2018.

Di is an active member of several professional associations. This includes the Board of Directors of IAMSE (International Association of Medical Science Educators) and Chair of the IAMSE Ambassador Program. As a member of AMEE (Association of Medical Education in Europe), she has served on the AMEE Research Committee since 2017. A longstanding member of ANZAHPE (Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators) she served on the Board of Directors and as journal liaison officer for seven years.

Di’s research career began with a Master's of Science degree (MSc) in reproductive physiology at the University of Florida in 1978. She subsequently worked for over 20 years as a bench scientist in bio-medical laboratories in the USA, Kenya and the UK. In 2000, she began her academic career after receiving a PhD in health and exercise psychology at the University of Bristol. She moved to the School of Medicine at UQ in late 2003.

The primary focus of Di’s research is medical education, research training and rural health workforce. Her specific area of research interest deals with personality and its association with well-being and healthy mindsets. Di is responsible for the development and implementation of the Clinician-Scientist Track in the UQ Medical School which encourages student interest and experience in research, and facilitates medical students undertaking a Higher Degree by Research (MD-PhD, MD-MPhil) alongside their medical degree.

Di has been recognised for her leadership in several Faculty initiatives in medical education, and received the 2015 University of Queensland Award for Excellence in Leadership. [http://www.hr.uq.edu.au/recognition/uq-awards-excellence-2015-recipients]

Di has over 150 peer reviewed journal publications, and has led successful projects through research funding including ARC Linkage and Discovery grants as well as Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) grants. Additionally she has received UQ and national awards for teaching excellence for programs that enhance learning.

• 2019: Faculty of Medicine Excellence Awards for Leadership – Nomination
• 2016: Faculty of Medicine Excellence Awards for Teaching and Learning – Nomination.
• 2015: The University of Queensland Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Learning [https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2015/11/uq’s-outstanding-teachers-celebrated] [https://vimeo.com/149706002]
• 2015: The University of Queensland Award for Excellence in Leadership [http://www.hr.uq.edu.au/recognition/uq-awards-excellence-2015-recipients]
• 2014: Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Senior Teaching Excellence Award
• 2014: Dean’s Award for Innovation in Curriculum Development. School of Medicine
• 2013: The University of Queensland - 'Commendation' for an Award for Teaching Excellence.
• 2013: The University of Queensland Faculty of Health Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence.
• 2006: National Carrick Award for Australian University Teaching – Programs that Enhance Learning: Innovation in curricula, learning and teaching.
• 2006: The University of Queensland Award for Enhancement of Student Learning. Programs that Enhance Learning: Innovation in curricula, learning and teaching.
• 2006: The University of Queensland Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.
• 2005: The University of Queensland Awards for Enhancement of Student Learning

Dr Rachel Elphinston is a Senior Research Fellow at Recover Injury Research Centre at The University of Queensland and clinical psychologist with more than a decade of industry-related experience. Her research interests focus on the psychological risk factors for pain and disability following injury, integrated pain treatments, pain medicines use, and the influence of social media. She has designed and implemented research projects examining factors associated with perceived injustice following road traffic crashes, psychosocial factors associated with prescription opioid use in individuals with chronic pain, the effectiveness of brief psychological risk-targeted telehealth interventions, and the role of social media messaging in policy implementation following the up-scheduling of codeine. She has received industry funding to co-design, develop and test feasibility of a psychological brief intervention to reduce risk of prescription opioid-related harm in patients with chronic pain. Dr Elphinston has a current appointment with Addiction and Mental Health Services in Metro South Health and has experience in working in multidisciplinary clinical and research teams to translate research into practice and design and implement new models of care. She also has experience in delivering education and training to a wide range of health professionals and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Associate Professor Holly Erskine leads the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Epidemiology and Services (CAPES) research stream at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor with the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland and is an affiliate Assistant Professor with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

Holly completed her PhD in 2016, examining the global epidemiology of ADHD and conduct disorder as well as the long-term outcomes associated with these disorders, and was awarded the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Higher Degree Theses. For several years, she was responsible for the epidemiological modelling and burden estimation of child and adolescent mental disorders in the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) and co-led a programme of work which directly led to the inclusion of bullying victimisation as a risk factor for major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders in GBD. She was awarded an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship in 2018 and was recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2022.

Currently, Holly is the Principal Investigator of the National Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (NAMHS), which involves nationally-representative surveys of the prevalence of adolescent mental disorders in Kenya, Indonesia, and Vietnam. She is also a chief investigator on the Australian Child Maltreatment Study and the Centre for Research Excellence in Adolescent Health Metrics.

David Evans is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Professor of Statistical Genetics at the University of Queensland Institute for Molecular Bioscience. He is a winner of the NHMRC Marshall and Warren Award.

He completed his PhD in Statistical Genetics at the University of Queensland in 2003, before undertaking a four-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford where he worked as part of the The International HapMap Consortium and co-led the analysis of four diseases within the first Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. In 2007 he moved to take up a Senior Lecturer position at the University of Bristol where he led much of the genome-wide association studies work in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). In 2013 he returned to take up a chair at the University of Queensland whilst continuing to lead an MRC Programme in statistical genetics at the University of Bristol.

His research interests include the genetic mapping of complex traits and diseases (including birthweight and other perinatal traits, osteoporosis, ankylosing spondylitis, sepsis, laterality) and the development of statistical methodologies in genetic epidemiology including approaches for gene mapping, individual risk prediction, causal modelling and dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits. He has a particular interest in Mendelian randomization and has used it and other causal methods to investigate the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)- the idea that adverse intrauterine exposures lead to increased risk of disease in later life.

He is Academic Codirector at the NIH funded International Workshop on Statistical Genetics Methods and is faculty on the European Programme in Educational Epidemiology.

He is Associate Editor at the International Journal of Epidemiology and Behavior Genetics journals.

Prof Darryl Eyles is the head of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research Developmental Neurobiology laboratory. One of Darryl’s research directions is focused on how known risk-factors for schizophrenia change the way the brain develops. His group have established the biological plausibility of various epidemiological risk factors for this disease including developmental vitamin D deficiency, prenatal hypoxia and maternal immune activation. Strikingly all these exposures affect the early development and later differentiation of early dopamine neurons. A second major focus is on understanding the effects of increased dopamine release in selective circuits and how this may be causal in schizophrenia. A third major interest is in factors such as the gut microbiome, and how increased testosterone contribute to altered brain function related to autism.

The first half of my academic career was focused on neuroscience research. My PhD looked at the modification of processing of painful information in the spinal cord by analgesics. Following my PhD, I investigated the electrical activity and properties of neurons in the amygdala, a brain region attributed with processing and mediating emotions and emotional memories. In addition I became interested in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region that is important for emotion regulation. I studied mechanisms involved in synaptic transmission and synaptic plasticity in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, with a focus on the role of potassium channels, including SK channels.

For the second half of my career I have moved into a more teaching-focused role. This was first as a casual academic in the School of Biomedical Sciences, from 2014-2020, and since 2021 as a teaching-focused lecturer, with my current research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. My research interests are primarily now in looking at emotions, emotion regulation and motivation regulation during learning, and how these can be harnessed to improve student experiences and learning outcomes. I'm also extremely interested in the development of transferable skills in undergraduates, such as science communication, critical thinking, and cultural capability, in preparation for their future lives and careers.

Honours projects are currently available with myself and others in the SBMS Biomedical Education Research Group, looking at:

• The use of motivation strategies to improve undergraduate student experiences and learning outcomes.
• Effective emotion regulation strategies in first year undergraduate students.

Professor Fairlie is an NHMRC Research Investigator Fellow (Level 3) (2022-present), a Node Leader of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide Protein Science, one of four Centre Directors and former Head of the Division of Chemistry of Structural Biology at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (since 2009), and an Affiliate Professor of the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences. He was previously an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow (2012-2021), a Node Leader at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging (2014-2021), an ARC Federation Fellow (2006-2011), an ARC Professorial Fellow (2002-2006), and Scientific Director and Chief Scientific Officer of a startup company. He undertook postdoctoral studies at Stanford University and University of Toronto, postgraduate studies at Australian National University and University of New South Wales, and undergraduate studies at University of Adelaide.

His research group works across the disciplines of chemistry (synthesis, structure, reaction mechanisms), biochemistry (enzyme inhibitors, protein-protein interactions, GPCRs, transcription factors), immunology (innate immune cells in health and disease, mucosal T cells), and pharmacology (molecular pharmacology and human cell signalling, experimental pharmacology in rodent models of human diseases). He has published over 480 scientific journal articles in high impact chemistry journals (e.g. Chem Rev, Acc Chem Res, J Am Chem Soc, Angew Chem Int Edit, Chem Sci, J Med Chem, Org Lett, J Org Chem) and biology journals (e.g. Nature, Science, Nat Rev Endocrinol, Mol Cancer, Immunity, Nature Immunology, Science Immunology, Am J Resp Crit Care Med, J Hepatol, Trends Immunol, Mol Neurodegen, Adv Drug Deliv Rev, Nature Communications, Trends Pharmacol Sci, J Exp Med, J Clin Invest, Kidney Int, Arthritis & Rheum, Science Advances, Pharmacol Ther, Cancer Res, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, Dev Cell, Curr Biol, J Cell Biol, Cell Reports, PloS Biol, Br J Pharmacol, JCI Insight, Diabetes, Mucosal Immunol, etc). He has been a Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate Analytics), with over 37,000 citations and 113 publications with over 100 citations (Google Scholar), and has collaborated with many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Dr Jon Fanning is a dedicated clinician with 15 years’ experience in clinical medicine including specialist training in Anaesthesia, Intensive care, and Neurology. Passionate about advancing clinical research and advocating for clinician-researchers, Jon balances research leadership, teaching and mentoring alongside his own research and active medical practice. Jon’s career includes a diverse research portfolio with a strong focus on harm minimisation (especially neurological injury) in operative and critical care settings. He has undertaken dedicated training in clinical trials (University of Oxford Clinical Trials Unit, UK), and in epidemiology (Harvard University, USA). In 2022 Jon undertook a Visiting Fulbright Scholarship in Cardiac intensive care and ECMO (Cardiovascular Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Johns Hopkins Medicine, USA).

To facilitate innovative discovery and advances in the fields of perioperative medicine, clinical trials, and ECMO, Jon invests considerable effort in building research capacity through collaboration with national and international research institutions. Valuing the diverse perspectives of multidisciplinary colleagues at all stages of their career, Jon recruits and supervises senior scientists, clinician-researchers and top PhD and MPhil students and looks to repay the generosity he has received from supervisors and mentors.

Additionally, Jon fosters research networks and ensures research integrity through leadership positions such as current positions as co-chair of the Queensland Cardiovascular Research Network; and as Expert Panel Member and writing committee representative for Therapeutic Guidelines.

Jad is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Frazer Institute, currently focused on the detailed immune profiling of novel group A Streptococcus vaccines, with a specific interest in dissecting the diverse immune responses generated by StrepA vaccines. His expertise is built upon a PhD in cancer immunotherapy and immunology, where he investigated the role of complement receptors in glioblastoma (GBM) tumour growth. Jad possesses strong technical proficiency in working with murine models and advanced multi-colour flow cytometry (capable of +40 colours). Furthermore, his commitment to education is recognized through a fellowship in the Higher Education Academy.

Itia is an optical physicist and neuroscientist recently awarded an ARC DECRA fellowship. She is based at the Queensland Brain Institute in Brisbane. Her research focuses on studying the zebrafish brain using advanced techniques such as whole brain calcium imaging and specialized light shaping devices. Notably, she has pioneered the application of optical tweezers to simulate the zebrafish inner-ear's responses to acceleration and hearing, offering novel insights into sensory processing mechanisms. She has also engineered imaging systems for conducting optogenetic experiments with real-time feedback in zebrafish models. Beyond technique development, Itia explores the noradrenergic system in zebrafish, investigating its pivotal role in modulating sensory functions. Her interdisciplinary approach combines optical physics with neuroscience to advance our understanding of neural circuits and sensory perception mechanisms in zebrafish.

Dr Fernando's current research interests include developing needle-free, pain-free, skin patch vaccines. Influenza and human papilloma virus vaccines are used as model vaccines in these studies.

Dr Germain Fernando completed PhD at the University of Arizona, USA, and did post-doctoral research at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA, before joining the University of Queensland in 1989. He has been working in the field of vaccinology for the last 28 years. He has a H-Index of 36.

He is a Senior Consultant at Vaxxas Pty. Ltd, Brisbane, Australia

Publications and Citation Metrics are available at the following website:

http://www.researcherid.com/rid/C-3733-2009

Dr Alize Ferrari leads the Epidemiology and Burden of Disease Research Stream at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. This stream undertakes a program of work featuring the collection of new epidemiological data for mental disorders, analysis of existing data to quantify the distribution of mental disorders, quantification of the fatal and non-fatal consequences of mental disorders, and the development of methodological frameworks to improve the precision at which we collect and analyse epidemiological data. Dr Ferrari is an Affiliate Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Queensland. She is the Team Lead for the Mental Disorders Research Team within the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study. The GBD initiative is led by IHME and quantifies health loss from over 350 causes. She is the Primary Investigator on the Queensland Urban Indigenous Mental Health Survey. This is a population-based mental health survey of adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Southeast Queensland. It will determine the prevalence of mental and substance use disorders, mental health services being accessed, and implications for service reform.

Professor Jason Ferris, is the Director of Research and Statistical Support Services (RASSS), University of Queensland. While providing service primarily to the Faculty of Medicine the service is expanding to support other organisation units. He is also a leading research academic at the Centre for Health Services Research (CHSR) where he is the Program Leader for Global Substance Use and Mental Health (GSUMH) unit. He holds an honorary professorial role at Turning Point, Victoria (2018-) and is also the Chief Data Scientist for the Global Drug Survey (2013-). Since 2019 he has held a ministerial appointment as an Advisory Council Member to the Queensland Mental Health Commission and is an interRAI Fellow (interrai.org).

Since 2020, Professor Jason Ferris, in collaboration with Dr Dom Gorse (Director of UQ's Data Science CRP) and many others from QCIF and UQ, have been working on the development and deployment of KeyPoint - an innovative data infrastructure, data governance and digital solution enabling researchers to access, manage, analyse and share sensitive research data in a scalable, fully governed and highly secure environment. The work has received a number of accolades. In 2023, The University of Queensland recognised the value of KeyPoint winning the Award for Excellence in Innovation. In 2022, the Faculty of Medicine recognised his commitment and leadership to the University awarding him and the team the Innovators of the Year Award. Professor Ferris and Dr Gorse are now developing a UQ solution for a Trusted Research Environment (UQ-TRE). Professor Ferris has received other recognition as well. In 2021, the Faculty of Medicine recognised the outstanding support of RASSS with a Service Excellence Award. In 2020, The University of Queensland recognised his contributions to his research field: he was awarded the Faculty of Medicine Leader of the Future Award (Academic) and The Director's Choice Award for contributions to the Centre for Health Services Research. In 2019, he was awarded The Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher within the Centre for Health Services Research and was also chosen as a finalist for the Faculty of Medicine Leader of the Future Award (Academic). Additionally, across the Faculty of Medicine, his Research and Statistical Support Service, was nominated for a Service Excellence Award (2019 and 2020). In 2015, he received the University of Queensland, Early Career Researcher Award within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science. In September, 2014, he received a Highly Commended Early Career Researcher Award within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science.

He has been involved in a number of key projects: The Queensland Evaluation of the Alcohol Fuelled Violence Policy (QUANTEM), The Overarching Evaluation of the National Support for Child and Youth Mental Health Program (CHYME), the evaluation of ProjectSTOP (a decision-making national database for pharmacists aimed at preventing the use of pseudoephedrine based products as a precursor in the manufacture of methamphetamine), and a national review of the links between random breath testing and alcohol-related road traffic accidents. Jason has over 20 years of social science and public health research experience. He has a well-established publication record with a strong focus on alcohol and drug research and public health. With a Master degree in biostatistics he has well developed and expansive quantitative methods skills and a broad range of experience in many of the facets of both social science and medical research. In 2014 his PhD on alcohol epidemiology was conferred.

Previously, as a senior statistician at the Institute for Social Science Research he developed and taught a number of training models in research methods and statistical analysis as part of the Methods for Social Analysis and Statistics (MFSAS). Since its inception in 2012 he has been course coordinator and trainer for a number of these training modules (see below). From 2016-2018 he was the Director of MFSAS. Between 2016-2017 he was also the ISSR Co-postgraduate Coordinator.

I am a physician at RBWH where I did my undergraduate training. I subspecialised in THoracic Medicine with a focus on bronchoscopy. I helped to create a large interventional service here. Part of that inlcuded instituting endobronchial ultrasound ( EBUS), an Australian first, in 2003. This has become standard of care for diagnosing lung cancer.

My research has been centred on how specimens from EBUS can be optimised. I have had strong collaboration with UQCCR, Pathology Queensland and QIMR Berghofer. Our work has expanded on 2 fronts- 1. use of simple cytology smears as the source for panel molecular testing and 2. The expanded role of WES and WGS on these samples.

We have instituted a large Australia wide collaborative network who are collecting samples along with us( The Debutant studies).We have Cancer Council Australia / CCQ/ and NHMRC grants fr these studies

I am a public health sociologist with research interests in the health and wellbeing of people experiencing marginalisation and the social determinants of (sexual) health. I am the course coordinator of PUBH7033 Foundations of Public Health and PUBH7003 Qualitative Research Methods. I am engaged in social research projects related to HIV, sexual health, young people, LGBTIQ+ health, sex worker health and the scholarship of teaching and learning.