Professor Grant Montgomery FAHMS FSRB Hon FRSNZ

Professor Montgomery was born in New Zealand, completed PhD studies in Animal Science at Massey University and post-doctoral research in France. In 1987, he co-founded the New Zealand Sheep Genomics Program in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Otago and pioneered the introduction of genome mapping methods in farm animals. He moved to Australia in 1999 and joined the Queensland Institute of Medical Research where he ran a successful genome mapping program for human complex disease. In 2016, he moved to the University of Queensland and holds joint appointments at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) and the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI). He is a National Health and Medical Research Council Leadership Fellow and Director of the UQ Genome Innovation Hub. He was elected a Fellow the Society for Reproductive Biology in 2012, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2015, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2016. His research focusses on discovery of critical genes and pathways increasing risk for common diseases especially reproductive diseases including endometriosis.

I completed my undergraduate and PhD training at UQ. After completing my PhD in 2009, I took up a postdoctoral position at UQCCR to introduce a translational edge to my research program. In 2012, I was awarded a Bill Gole Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the Motor Neurone Disease Research Institute of Australia (MNDRIA) and returned to the School of Biomedical Sciences with this fellowship to continue my research program in motor neuron disease (MND). In 2015, I was awarded the Scott Sullivan MND Research Fellowship. In this position, I conduct research between the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and the Queensland Brain Institute at UQ, and the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and the Wesley Hospital to address how changes in energy metabolism affects the course of MND, whilst working to develop therapies for MND.

The primary interest of my research group is to understand how metabolic homeostasis at the systemic and cellular level can impact upon neurodegenerative processes. My group's Metabolic Exploration in Neurodegenerative Disease (MEND) research program centres on Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a fatal neurological condition in which the average life expectancy is 27 months following diagnosis. In MND, the irreversible degeneration of neurones in the central nervous system leads to progressive paralysis and eventually, death. There is no effective treatment for MND, and hence no cure. We are using mouse models of MND, and human myosatellite cell-derived muscle fibres and human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons to not only understand the mechanistic nature of MND, but to also conduct preclinical testing of potential therapeutic compounds. The combined use of mouse and human-derived models are integral to our goal of translating research findings into clinical trials for MND.

The human nervous system is no longer thought of has hard-wired, and is in fact capable of rapid change throughout life. This plasticity is important for learning, memory and recovery from brain injury. I am interested in using emerging brain stimulation and imaging techniques to "artificially" induce plasticity in the human brain, to ultimately improve the treatment outcomes for various neurological conditions, particularly stroke. These stimulation techniques include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).

I completed a BSc in 1994 and received a First Class Honours in Physiology in 1995 from the University of Adelaide. I then completed a Bachelor of Physiotherapy Degree at the University of South Australia. Returning to research in 2005, I undertook a PhD at the University of Adelaide, which I completed in 2009. My doctoral studies focussed on a new and exciting area of neuroscience – neuroplasticity. At the time of commencing my PhD, it was becoming clear that various non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (such as TMS) were able to temporarily reorganise the circuitry in the human brain in a similar way to what happens when we learn something new or store a memory. I was interested in trying to understand why some people responded to these stimulation paradigms, and others didn't. What I discovered was that it an important driver of plasticity in humans was when the stimulation was delivered. In effect, the brain seemed to learn better at night time compared to the morning. This has important clinical implications, as it suggests that rehabilitation might be more effective at a certain time of day.

I was awarded a University of Queensland Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2010, and then a NH&MRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2011 to investigate more intensely how the brains of stroke patients rewire. I am using state-of-the-art stimulation and imaging techniques such as TMS, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to understand how the brain reorganises when it stores information, and how we can boost this process.

I am currently an Associate Professor and Head of Physiotherapy within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at UQ. I head my own brain stimulation and imaging laboratory, and am conducting experiments in the following areas:

a) investigating the link between brain oscillations, sleep, plasticity and ageing;

b) improving hazard perception with brain sitmulation;

c) identifying factors that improve neuroplasticity induction in health and disease.

Naomi Wray is the Michael Davys Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford. She holds an appointment at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) within the University of Queensland. She joined UQ Queensland Brain Institute in 2011 moving to the IMB in 2015. She was Head of the Centre for Population & Disease Genomics within IMB 2018-2023. Her Oxford appointment started in 2023.

Her research focuses on development and application of quantitative genetics and genomics methodologies across complex diseases, disorders and traits, but particularly psychiatric-related traits.

She is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. In 2020 she was awarded the NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Award for Leadership in Basic Science and the 2021 International Society of Psychiatric Genetics Ming Tsuang Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a Clarivate Highly Cited researcher.

She was Director of the Program in Complex Trait Genomics (PCTG) funded as an NHMRC Program Grant 2017-2022. She plays a key role in the International Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and established the sporadic ALS Australia systems genomics consortium (SALSA) funded by the MND Research Australia IceBucket Challenge and FightMND. She is a co-investigator on the Australian Genetics of Depression Study (AGDS) and is currently launching the AGDS-Cello project focussed on establishing a cell line resource from participants with a detailed history of anti-depressant use and response measures. She is part of an NHMRC Synergy (2023-2027) "Rhythms and blues: Personalising care for body clock dysfunction in mood disorders".

She is secretary of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, and is on the editorial advisory boards of JAMA Psychiatry, Neuron, Royal Society Open and Research Directions: Depression.