Computational and molecular biology

To understand the roles played by retrotransposons in early mammalian embryogenesis, and in neurons

Professor Faulkner’s research seeks to understand the role of retrotransposons, a type of “mobile DNA”, in causing genetic mosaicism in early mammalian embryogenesis, and in neurons.

This variation may be a fundamental aspect of healthy brain function, and appears to change in neurological diseases, including Rett syndrome, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.

Professor Faulkner published a landmark work in Nature describing somatic retrotransposition in the human brain that was selected by the US National Institute of Mental Health as the 'joint No. 1 research advance of 2011' and has followed this work with four breakthrough articles in Cell and Molecular Cell. He is the recipient of the ASMR Queensland Premier’s Award (2009), the FEBS Anniversary Prize (2011), the Lorne Genome Millennium Science Award (2014), the Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize (2014) and the Australian Academy of Science Ruth Stephens Gani Medal (2016).

Group leader

 Professor Geoff Faulkner

Professor Geoff Faulkner

Group Leader, Computational and molecular biology

Professor, Neuroscience Queensland Brain Institute

  +61 7 334 66300
  g.faulkner@uq.edu.au
  UQ Researcher Profile

Better understand how the genome - our “book of life” - changes in normal and diseased brain cells.

QBI Professor awarded $1.25 million CSL Centenary Fellowship

  • Transient naive reprogramming corrects hiPS cells functionally and epigenetically

    Buckberry, Sam, Liu, Xiaodong, Poppe, Daniel, Tan, Jia Ping, Sun, Guizhi, Chen, Joseph, Nguyen, Trung Viet, de Mendoza, Alex, Pflueger, Jahnvi, Frazer, Thomas, Vargas-Landín, Dulce B., Paynter, Jacob M., Smits, Nathan, Liu, Ning, Ouyang, John F., Rossello, Fernando J., Chy, Hun S., Rackham, Owen J. L., Laslett, Andrew L., Breen, James, Faulkner, Geoffrey J., Nefzger, Christian M., Polo, Jose M. and Lister, Ryan (2023). Transient naive reprogramming corrects hiPS cells functionally and epigenetically. Nature, 620 (7975), 863-872. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06424-7

  • Endogenous retroviruses can propagate TDP-43 proteinopathy

Ferreiro, Maria E. and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2023). Endogenous retroviruses can propagate TDP-43 proteinopathy. Trends in Neurosciences. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2023.03.011

  • Elevated L1 expression in ataxia telangiectasia likely explained by an RNA-seq batch effect

    Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2023). Elevated L1 expression in ataxia telangiectasia likely explained by an RNA-seq batch effect. Neuron, 111 (5), 610-611. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.02.007

  • Impact of retrotransposon protein L1 ORF1p expression on oncogenic pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma: the role of cytoplasmic PIN1 upregulation

    Zadran, Bassier, Sudhindar, Praveen Dhondurao, Wainwright, Daniel, Bury, Yvonne, Luli, Saimir, Howarth, Rachel, McCain, Misti Vanette, Watson, Robyn, Huet, Hannah, Palinkas, Fanni, Palmini, Rolando Berlinguer, Casement, John, Mann, Derek A., Oakley, Fiona, Lunec, John, Reeves, Helen, Faulkner, Geoffrey J. and Shukla, Ruchi (2023). Impact of retrotransposon protein L1 ORF1p expression on oncogenic pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma: the role of cytoplasmic PIN1 upregulation. British Journal of Cancer, 128 (7), 1236-1248. doi: 10.1038/s41416-023-02154-9

  • Retrotransposon instability dominates the acquired mutation landscape of mouse induced pluripotent stem cells

    Gerdes, Patricia, Lim, Sue Mei, Ewing, Adam D., Larcombe, Michael R., Chan, Dorothy, Sanchez-Luque, Francisco J., Walker, Lucinda, Carleton, Alexander L., James, Cini, Knaupp, Anja S., Carreira, Patricia E., Nefzger, Christian M., Lister, Ryan, Richardson, Sandra R., Polo, Jose M. and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2022). Retrotransposon instability dominates the acquired mutation landscape of mouse induced pluripotent stem cells. Nature Communications, 13 (1) 7470, 1-18. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-35180-x

  • Author Correction: Discovery of widespread transcription initiation at microsatellites predictable by sequence-based deep neural network (Nature Communications, (2021), 12, 1, (3297), 10.1038/s41467-021-23143-7)

    Grapotte, Mathys, Saraswat, Manu, Bessière, Chloé, Menichelli, Christophe, Ramilowski, Jordan A., Severin, Jessica, Hayashizaki, Yoshihide, Itoh, Masayoshi, Tagami, Michihira, Murata, Mitsuyoshi, Kojima-Ishiyama, Miki, Noma, Shohei, Noguchi, Shuhei, Kasukawa, Takeya, Hasegawa, Akira, Suzuki, Harukazu, Nishiyori-Sueki, Hiromi, Frith, Martin C., Abugessaisa, Imad, Aitken, Stuart, Aken, Bronwen L., Alam, Intikhab, Alam, Tanvir, Alasiri, Rami, Alhendi, Ahmad M. N., Alinejad-Rokny, Hamid, Alvarez, Mariano J., Andersson, Robin, Arakawa, Takahiro ... Lecellier, Charles-Henri (2022). Author Correction: Discovery of widespread transcription initiation at microsatellites predictable by sequence-based deep neural network (Nature Communications, (2021), 12, 1, (3297), 10.1038/s41467-021-23143-7). Nature Communications, 13 (1) 1200. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-28758-y

  • Somatic retrotransposition in the developing rhesus macaque brain

    Billon, Victor, Sanchez-Luque, Francisco J, Rasmussen, Jay, Bodea, Gabriela O, Gerhardt, Daniel J, Gerdes, Patricia, Cheetham, Seth W, Schauer, Stephanie N, Ajjikuttira, Prabha, Meyer, Thomas J, Layman, Cora E, Nevonen, Kimberly A, Jansz, Natasha, Garcia-Perez, Jose L, Richardson, Sandra R, Ewing, Adam D, Carbone, Lucia and Faulkner, Geoffrey J (2022). Somatic retrotransposition in the developing rhesus macaque brain. Genome Research, 32 (7), gr.276451.121-1314. doi: 10.1101/gr.276451.121

  • HUSH, retrotransposon RNA, you're NEXT to decay

    Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2022). HUSH, retrotransposon RNA, you're NEXT to decay. Molecular Cell, 82 (9), 1610-1612. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2022.04.013

  • Retrotransposons: still mobile in humans

    Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2022). Retrotransposons: still mobile in humans. Nature Reviews Genetics, 23 (8), 458-459. doi: 10.1038/s41576-022-00485-6

  • Discovery of widespread transcription initiation at microsatellites predictable by sequence-based deep neural network

    Grapotte, Mathys, Saraswat, Manu, Bessière, Chloé, Menichelli, Christophe, Ramilowski, Jordan A., Severin, Jessica, Hayashizaki, Yoshihide, Itoh, Masayoshi, Tagami, Michihira, Murata, Mitsuyoshi, Kojima-Ishiyama, Miki, Noma, Shohei, Noguchi, Shuhei, Kasukawa, Takeya, Hasegawa, Akira, Suzuki, Harukazu, Nishiyori-Sueki, Hiromi, Frith, Martin C., Abugessaisa, Imad, Aitken, Stuart, Aken, Bronwen L., Alam, Intikhab, Alam, Tanvir, Alasiri, Rami, Alhendi, Ahmad M. N., Alinejad-Rokny, Hamid, Alvarez, Mariano J., Andersson, Robin, Arakawa, Takahiro ... Lecellier, Charles-Henri (2021). Discovery of widespread transcription initiation at microsatellites predictable by sequence-based deep neural network. Nature Communications, 12 (1) 3297. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23143-7

  • The evolving gene regulatory landscape—a tinkerer of complex creatures

    Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2021). The evolving gene regulatory landscape—a tinkerer of complex creatures. Genome Biology, 22 (1) 199, 199. doi: 10.1186/s13059-021-02412-0

  • Hcv activates somatic l1 retrotransposition—a potential hepatocarcinogenesis pathway

    Sudhindar, Praveen D., Wainwright, Daniel, Saha, Santu, Howarth, Rachel, McCain, Misti, Bury, Yvonne, Saha, Sweta S., McPherson, Stuart, Reeves, Helen, Patel, Arvind H., Faulkner, Geoffrey J., Lunec, John and Shukla, Ruchi (2021). Hcv activates somatic l1 retrotransposition—a potential hepatocarcinogenesis pathway. Cancers, 13 (20) 5079. doi: 10.3390/cancers13205079

  • Processed pseudogenes: a substrate for evolutionary innovation. Retrotransposition contributes to genome evolution by propagating pseudogene sequences with rich regulatory potential throughout the genome

    Troskie, Robin-Lee, Faulkner, Geoffrey J. and Cheetham, Seth W. (2021). Processed pseudogenes: a substrate for evolutionary innovation. Retrotransposition contributes to genome evolution by propagating pseudogene sequences with rich regulatory potential throughout the genome. BioEssays, 43 (11) 2100186, 2100186. doi: 10.1002/bies.202100186

  • An early proinflammatory transcriptional response to tau pathology is age‐specific and foreshadows reduced tau burden

    Rasmussen, Jay, Ewing, Adam D., Bodea, Liviu‐Gabriel, Bodea, Gabriela O., Gearing, Marla and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2021). An early proinflammatory transcriptional response to tau pathology is age‐specific and foreshadows reduced tau burden. Brain Pathology, 32 (3) e13018, e13018. doi: 10.1111/bpa.13018

  • No evidence of human genome integration of SARS-CoV-2 found by long-read DNA sequencing

    Smits, Nathan, Rasmussen, Jay, Bodea, Gabriela O., Amarilla, Alberto A., Gerdes, Patricia, Sanchez-Luque, Francisco J., Ajjikuttira, Prabha, Modhiran, Naphak, Liang, Benjamin, Faivre, Jamila, Deveson, Ira W., Khromykh, Alexander A., Watterson, Daniel, Ewing, Adam D. and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2021). No evidence of human genome integration of SARS-CoV-2 found by long-read DNA sequencing. Cell Reports, 36 (7) 109530, 109530. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109530

  • Absence of coding somatic single nucleotide variants within well-known candidate genes in late-onset sporadic Alzheimer's Disease based on the analysis of multi-omics data

    Min, Shishi, Li, Zongchang, Shieh, Annie, Giase, Gina, Bao, Riyue, Zhang, Chunling, Kuney, Liz, Kopp, Richard, Asif, Huma, Alliey-Rodriguez, Ney, Qin, Lixia, Craig, David Wesley, Faulkner, Geoffrey J., Gershon, Elliot S., Tang, Beisha, Chen, Chao and Liu, Chunyu (2021). Absence of coding somatic single nucleotide variants within well-known candidate genes in late-onset sporadic Alzheimer's Disease based on the analysis of multi-omics data. Neurobiology of Aging, 108, 207-209. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.07.010

  • Hippocampal neurogenesis mediates sex-specific effects of social isolation and exercise on fear extinction in adolescence

    Drummond, Katherine D., Waring, Michelle L., Faulkner, Geoffrey J., Blewitt, Marnie E., Perry, Christina J. and Kim, Jee Hyun (2021). Hippocampal neurogenesis mediates sex-specific effects of social isolation and exercise on fear extinction in adolescence. Neurobiology of Stress, 15 100367, 1-16. doi: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2021.100367

  • Endogenous retroviruses in the origins and treatment of cancer

    Jansz, Natasha and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2021). Endogenous retroviruses in the origins and treatment of cancer. Genome Biology, 22 (1) 147, 1-22. doi: 10.1186/s13059-021-02357-4

  • Long-read cDNA sequencing identifies functional pseudogenes in the human transcriptome

    Troskie, Robin-Lee, Jafrani, Yohaann, Mercer, Tim R., Ewing, Adam D., Faulkner, Geoffrey J. and Cheetham, Seth W. (2021). Long-read cDNA sequencing identifies functional pseudogenes in the human transcriptome. Genome Biology, 22 (1) 146, 1-15. doi: 10.1186/s13059-021-02369-0

  • Nanopore sequencing enables comprehensive transposable element epigenomic profiling

    Ewing, Adam D., Smits, Nathan, Sanchez-Luque, Francisco J., Faivre, Jamila, Brennan, Paul M., Richardson, Sandra R., Cheetham, Seth W. and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2020). Nanopore sequencing enables comprehensive transposable element epigenomic profiling. Molecular Cell, 80 (5), 915-928.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.10.024

  • LINE-1 Evasion of epigenetic repression in humans

    Sanchez-Luque, Francisco J., Kempen, Marie-Jeanne H.C., Gerdes, Patricia, Vargas-Landin, Dulce B., Richardson, Sandra R., Troskie, Robin-Lee, Jesuadian, J. Samuel, Cheetham, Seth W., Carreira, Patricia E., Salvador-Palomeque, Carmen, García-Cañadas, Marta, Muñoz-Lopez, Martin, Sanchez, Laura, Lundberg, Mischa, Macia, Angela, Heras, Sara R., Brennan, Paul M., Lister, Ryan, Garcia-Perez, Jose L., Ewing, Adam D. and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2019). LINE-1 Evasion of epigenetic repression in humans. Molecular Cell, 75 (3), 590-604.e12. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2019.05.024

  • L1 mosaicism in mammals: extent, effects, and evolution

    Faulkner, Geoffrey J. and Garcia-Perez, Jose L. (2017). L1 mosaicism in mammals: extent, effects, and evolution. Trends in Genetics, 33 (11), 802-816. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2017.07.004

  • Reprogramming triggers endogenous L1 and Alu retrotransposition in human induced pluripotent stem cells

    Klawitter, Sabine, Fuchs,Nina V., Upton, Kyle R., Munoz-Lopez, Martin, Shukla, Ruchi, Wang, Jichang, Garcia-Canadas, Marta, Lopez-Ruiz, Cesar, Gerhardt, Daniel J., Sebe, Attila, Grabundzija, Ivana, Merkert, Sylvia, Gerdes, Patricia, Pulgarin, J. Andres, Bock, Anja, Held, Ulrike, Witthuhn, Anett, Haase, Alexandra, Sarkadi, Balazs, Lower, Johannes, Wolvetang, Ernst J., Martin, Ulrich, Ivics, Zoltan, Izsvak, Zsuzsanna, Garcia-Perez, Jose L., Faulkner, Geoffrey J. and Schumann, Gerald G. (2016) Reprogramming triggers endogenous L1 and Alu retrotransposition in human induced pluripotent stem cells. Nature Communications, 7 1-14. doi:10.1038/ncomms10286

  • Ubiquitous L1 mosaicism in hippocampal neurons

    Upton, Kyle R., Gerhardt, Daniel J., Jesuadian, J. Samuel, Richardson, Sandra R., Sanchez-Luque, Francisco J., Bodea, Gabriela O., Ewing, Adam D., Salvador-Palomeque, Carmen, van der Knaap, Mario S., Brennan, Paul M., Vanderver, Adeline and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2015) Ubiquitous L1 mosaicism in hippocampal neurons. Cell161 2: 228-239. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.03.026

  • L1 retrotransposons and somatic mosaicism in the brain

    Richardson, Sandra R., Morell, Santiago and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2014) L1 retrotransposons and somatic mosaicism in the brain. Annual Review of Genetics48 1-27. doi:10.1146/annurev-genet-120213-092412

  • Endogenous retrotransposition activates oncogenic pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma

    Shukla, Ruchi, Upton, Kyle R., Muñoz-Lopez, Martin, Gerhardt, Daniel J., Fisher, Malcolm E., Thu Nguyen, Brennan, Paul M., Baillie, J. Kenneth, Collino, Agnese, Ghisletti, Serena, Sinha, Shruti, Iannelli, Fabio, Radaelli, Enrico, Dos Santos, Alexandre, Rapoud, Delphine, Guettier, Catherine, Samuel, Didier, Natoli, Gioacchino, Carninci, Piero, Ciccarelli, Francesca D., Luis Garcia-Perez, Jose, Faivre, Jamila and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2013) Endogenous retrotransposition activates oncogenic pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma. Cell153 1: 101-111. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2013.02.032

  • Somatic retrotransposition alters the genetic landscape of the human brain

    Baillie, J. Kenneth, Barnett, Mark W., Upton, Kyle R., Gerhardt, Daniel J., Richmond, Todd A., De Sapio, Fioravante, Brennan. Paul M., Rizzu, Patrizia, Smith, Sarah, Fell, Mark, Talbot, Richard T., Gustincich, Stefano, Freeman, Thomas C., Mattick, John S., Hume, David A., Heutink, Peter, Carninci, Piero, Jeddeloh, Jeffrey A. and Faulkner, Geoffrey J. (2011) Somatic retrotransposition alters the genetic landscape of the human brain. Nature479 7374: 534-537. doi:10.1038/nature10531

  • The regulated retrotransposon transcriptome of mammalian cells

    Faulkner, Geoffrey J., Kimura, Yasumasa, Daub, Carsten O., Wani, Shivangi, Plessy, Charles, Irvine, Katharine M., Schroder, Kate, Cloonan, Nicole, Steptoe, Anita L., Lassmann, Timo, Waki, Kazunori, Hornig, Nadine, Arakawa, Takahiro, Takahashi, Hazuki, Kawai, Jun, Forrest, Alistair R. R., Suzuki, Harukazu, Hayashizaki, Yoshihide, Hume, David A., Orlando, Valerio, Grimmond, Sean M. and Carninci, Piero (2009) The regulated retrotransposon transcriptome of mammalian cells. Nature genetics41 5: 563-571. doi:10.1038/ng.368

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Research areas

  • Retrotransposons
  • Genetic mosaicism
  • Rett sydnrome, schizophrenia, & Alzheimer's disease

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Research Members


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