Team sub list

Epidemiology, genetics, epigenetics, biostatistics, cancer risk modelling, twins & family research

Suggested topics
- Variation in polygenic risk scores in predicting disease risk and explaining familial aggregation.
- Cancer risks related to cancer susceptibility genes.
- Epigenetics related to hormonal risk factors.

Associate Professor Li is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, a Dame Kate Campbell Fellow and a medically trained epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics. His research interest includes genetic and epigenetic epidemiology, twin and family research, cancer epidemiology and cancer risk modelling. 

Cancer, genetics, genomics, precision health, risk prediction

Suggested topics
- Cancer risk prediction
- Risk-based cancer screening

Associate Professor Steinberg is a Cancer Institute NSW Career Development Fellow and leads the Genomics and Precision Health research stream at the Daffodil Centre. She co-leads the Australian Cancer Risk Study, a collaborative transdisciplinary program to evaluate the potential of genomic risk prediction for risk-based cancer screening and early detection in Australia.

Her research programme aims to integrate individual and population-level genomic, sociodemographic, behaviour, and medical information for successful precision health. Julia’s focus is on effectively and sustainably improving human health and reducing the burden of cancer.

Precision medicine, genomics, epidemiology, biobanking, familial cancer research

Professor Southey is Chair of Precision Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Director Biobanking Victoria, based at the Monash Health Translation Precinct and Co-Director of the Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium.

Professor Southey’s research program has a population-based focus that has been pivotal to the establishment of large genetic epidemiological research resources that are now being utilized to address key questions in cancer research. Melissa is best known for her work with multiple-case cancer families and heritable risk factors that has provided the evidence base for best practice guidelines for the clinical management of individuals at high risk of the disease.

Neuroscience, mental health & wellbeing research, clinical translation

Associate Professor Gatt is Director of the Centre for Wellbeing, Resilience and Recovery, Head of the Gatt Resilience Group at Neuroscience Research Australia and the School of Psychology UNSW, and is an External Fellow at the Black Dog Institute. She leads a research program that focuses on understanding the neuroscience of wellbeing and resilience to stress and trauma, and ways that wellbeing and resilience can be promoted via various intervention platforms.

Machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science

Professor Makalic is a Professor of Machine Learning at the Department of Data Science and AI, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University. He has a lifelong interest in theoretical computer science and a mission to enable global impact through quality teaching and research that emphasizes collaborative, inter-disciplinary partnerships. Since completing his PhD in machine learning, he has spent over 15 years working in Bayesian inference, information theoretic statistics and digital health.

Life course epidemiology of chronic respiratory diseases

Suggested topics
– Causal risk factors for respiratory diseases
– Genetic susceptibility to respiratory diseases

Professor Dharmage trained in Clinical Medicine, Public Health and Epidemiology, leads the Allergy and Lung Health Unit at the University of Melbourne. She is a world-recognised leader in Life Course Epidemiology of Allergies and Chronic Respiratory Diseases, and Obstructive Lung Diseases. She is the current custodian and Principal Investigator of three of the world’s key studies in allergies and lung health.

Psychiatric epidemiology, injury epidemiology, linked data research, twin and family studies

Suggested topics
- Examining the impact of familial confounding in the relationship between depression and alcohol harms in young people.
- Is the relationship between bipolar disorder and substance use disorder consistent with causality?
- Are sex differences in the onset and co-occurrence of mental illness and substance use disorder causal?

Associate Professor Young is a Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He also holds adjunct positions at The University of Melbourne, The University of Western Australia, Monash University, Curtin University, and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Specialising in psychiatric epidemiology with expertise in data linkage research and twin and family studies, his program of research focuses on generating robust population-based, policy-relevant evidence on dual diagnosis (the co-occurrence of mental illness and substance use disorder), its associated health burden and health service use patterns, and is underpinned by the principles of inclusion health and mental health equity.

Infection, immunity, paediatric epidemiology

Dr Miller is Head of Epidemiology at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, at The Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity.

Her research interests are in maternal/child health and in understanding the differential susceptibility to childhood infections. Much of her research has used population-level linked data from various countries to study the associations between pregnancy, birth and early life factors and childhood infections.  

Adolescent health equity, data-linkage, epidemiology

Dr Lucas Calais Ferreira is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne. He holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship from Suicide Prevention Australia and has honorary appointments with the Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and the Justice Health Group, Curtin University.

The Late Professor Hopper was instrumental in the funding and establishing of the GERA CRE. A world-renown genetic epidemiologist and biostatistician, he was principal or co-investigator on many studies and collaborations across a range of diseases and conditions, particularly breast cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma, childhood cancer and asthma. John established, and contributed greatly to twin and family studies as PI, collaborator, and the Director of Twins Research Australia for nearly 35 years. Sadly, John passed away unexpectedly in October 2024. We honour his vision for GERA and his incredible legacy.

Statistical genomics, molecular bioscience

Dr Yengo is Group Leader of the Statistical Genomics Laboratory within UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience. He started his own lab in 2020 to investigate the causes and consequences of genetic variation within and between human populations. His group develops and applies novel statistical methods to analyse large volumes of genomic data.

Genetic epidemiology, biostatistics

Dr Dite is an Honorary at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. She has worked as a research epidemiologist and biostatistician at MSPGH for over 25 years as well as in an industry role. She was Senior Biostatistician at GERA industry partner, Genetic Technologies Limited. She has led management and statistical analysis of data from large and complex epidemiological studies, and the development of risk prediction tests for cancers and other serious diseases.

Genetics, quantitative genetics, statistical genetics

Georgios is an Assistant Professor at the University of Barcelona. His main research topics include human population genetics and primate evolutionary genomics, genetics of complex traits, and development of statistical methods for quantitative analyses.

Health economics & evaluation, risk prediction & modelling

Dr Hua is a Senior Research Fellow and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the Melbourne Health Economics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Her research interests include economic evaluation, health service research, risk prediction and modelling in the areas of chronic disease and maternal and child health.

Epidemiology, risk prediction modelling

Associate Professor MacInnis is Principal Research Fellow with the Cancer Epidemiology Division, Cancer Council Victoria. He is an epidemiologist with over 20 years of experience in the design and analysis of studies examining the role of genetic and environmental causes of chronic diseases, particularly cancer. He has worked on large cohort studies and twin studies, as well as family study designs.

Epidemiology, biostatistics, bowel cancer

Professor Mark Jenkins is the Director of the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. He is a cancer epidemiologist with over 25 years of experience in the design, conduct, and analysis of studies examining the role of genetic and environmental causes of cancer, and the prevention and early detection of colorectal cancer, particularly in screening participation.

Clinical genetics, biomedical research, research translation, skin disorders, cancer

Professor Winship is a clinician scientist and Inaugural Chair of Adult Clinical Genetics at the University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital. Her career has combined clinical practice, biomedical research and the translation of research into practice and policy. While she works across many domains within clinical genetics, her research interests have been focused on inherited cancer, and in particular the potential for cancer prevention. She is a Director of the Boards of the Australian Genome Research Facility and Global Variome. 

Genomic cancer, molecular oncology

Professor Thomas is Chief of Science and Strategy and founder of Omico (Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre) and is the inaugural Director of the UNSW Centre for Molecular Oncology.

Population paediatrics

Professor Wake is a paediatrician, community child health researcher, Scientific Director of the Generation Victoria (GenV) initiative, and PI of the Child Health CheckPoint biophysical module for the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Her ‘population paediatrics’ agenda spans common childhood conditions and antecedents of diseases of ageing. Her goals are to speed up children’s research and to test interventions that change children’s care. Other affiliations: Leader, Prevention Innovation Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; Professorial Fellow, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne.

Public health & health services research, linked data research, epidemiological methods

Professor Preen is Chair in Public Health, and Deputy Head (Research), at the School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia. He has an established international reputation in the application of epidemiological methods to linked data research and has been involved with conducting public health and health services research using whole-population linked administrative health data for almost 20 years to study areas including: cancer service delivery, pharmaco-epidemiology, chronic disease management, health of marginalised populations, and methodological advances using data linkage.