Associate Professor Margie Wright (Principal Research Fellow)
Associate Professor Margie Wright leads the Imaging Genomics group at the Queensland Brain Institute. Her research focuses on the neurobiological causes and modifiers of cognitive function associated with development, including ageing, and, especially brain disorders. Much of this work takes a multi-method approach using neuroimaging (sMRI, dMRI, task and resting state fMRI) and cutting-edge techniques to interrogate brain images in key periods (e.g. adolescence) and across the lifespan in twin and non-twin cohorts, as well as neuropsychological tests, and behavioural and molecular genetic approaches.
Doctor of Philosophy, Flinders University
Bachelor of Neurophysiology (Hons 1), University of Otago
Common genetic variants influence human subcortical brain structures
Identification of common variants associated with human hippocampal and intracranial volumes
Heritability of working memory brain activation
Genetics of white matter development: A DTI study of 705 twins and their siblings aged 12 to 29
View all publicationsEmail: [email protected]
Tel: +61 7 334 63112
Dr Narelle Hansell (Research Fellow)
Narelle completed a Bachelor of Arts (double major in psychology), followed by first class Honours in psychology, at the University of Queensland. Her PhD was based at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (now known as QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute), where she merged her interest in psychology with that of behaviour genetics to investigate genetic influences on brain function and cognitive processing. In 2003 she took a postdoctoral position with QIMR Berghofer where her work focussed on the genetic analysis of twin data and explored the extent of genetic and environmental influence on multiple behavioural traits, and more recently, brain structure and function. In January 2016 she took up a position as Research Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute to work with A/Prof Margie Wright on a longitudinal twin study exploring neurodevelopment during early adolescence.
Doctor of Philosophy (2003), The University of Queensland
Bachelor of Psychology (Hons)(1997), The University of Queensland
Genome-wide association study of working memory brain activation.
The effect of increased genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease on hippocampal and amygdala volume.
Heritability of the network architecture of intrinsic brain functional connectivity.
Genetic basis of a cognitive complexity metric.
Genetics and brain morphology.
Genetic architecture of subcortical brain regions: common and region-specific genetic contributions.
Childhood intelligence is heritable, highly polygenic and associated with FNBP1L.
Email: [email protected]
Building: Ritchie Research Laboratories, #64A
Room: 212
Dr Lachlan Strike (Postdoctoral Research Fellow)
Lachlan completed a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Hons) and PhD at the University of Queensland. His research focuses on examining genetic influences on structural and diffusion neuroimaging phenotypes.
Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
Bachelor of Psychological Science (Hons), The University of Queensland
Email: [email protected]
Victoria O'Callaghan (PhD Candidate)
Victoria commenced her PhD with the lab in 2018. She is investigating the effects of depressive symptoms and sleep problems on the brain.
Bachelor of Science (Hons I), The University of Queensland
Islay Davies (PhD Student)
Islay commenced her PhD with the lab in 2018. She is investigating the heritability of resting state functional connectivity.
BSc (Hons 1) Psychology, The University of Queensland
Master of IT, Queensland University of Technology
BA (Japanese), Griffith University
CELTA (Cert. in English Language Teaching to Adults)
Email: [email protected]
Liza van Eijk (PhD Candidate)
After completing a Bachelor of Psychology, Liza did a Research Master in Cognitive Neuropsychology. At the moment, she is doing her PhD in Psychology at the University of Queensland focusing on sex differences in the brain. She is involved in Margie Wright’s Queensland Twin Adolescent Brain project at the Queensland Brain Institute. For more information about this study see ‘Featured Projects’ – ‘QTAB’.
VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Research Master in Cognitive Neuropsychology
Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Bachelor in Psychology
Email: [email protected]
Jessica Miller (Research Assistant)
Jessica graduated with a Bachelor of Psychological Science from the University of Queensland. She is currently involved in several projects run by the Wright Group within the Queensland Brain Institute, including the Queensland Twin Adolescent Brain Project and the ‘Imagine Cerebral Palsy’ Genome and Connectome Study. For more information about these projects, please visit our ‘Featured Projects’ section.
The University of Queensland
Bachelor of Psychological Science
Coming soon …
Email: [email protected]
Baptiste’s PhD (Breaking down the genetics of depression using brain endophenotypes) was awarded in 2017. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience.
Daniel’s PhD (Individual differences in taste and their association with genes, dietary behaviour, and brain structure) was conferred in 2018. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Translational Research Institute.
Michelle was previously a postdoctoral research fellow in the lab. She is currently a senior research officer at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.
Undergraduate
2019
Ethan Campi (Honours)
Gabriella Lemass (Winter scholar)
2018
Jack Downes (Ashintosh-QBI Summer scholar)
Oksana Bar (Ashintosh-QBI Summer scholar)
Montana Samantzis (SCIE3011)
Rohit Haldar (Winter scholar)
2017
Phoebe Mayne (Honours)
Victoria O’Callaghan (Honours)
Daniel How (Summer scholar)
Gurbinder Kaur (Winter scholar)
2016
Schwanagorn Sirirat (Summer scholar)
Vanessa Yiwen Lo (Summer scholar)
Sishu Zhou (Summer scholar)
2015
Tom Changlai (Summer scholar)
