Genomics in Health Profile
If you are interested in undertaking any of the PhD projects below. Please reach out to Dr Sonia Shah including the project name in the subject line and with an up to date CV attached.
1. Gender matters: Using genomics data to understand sex-specific risk in heart disease
*this project qualifies for the Global Challenges Scholarship
Principal Advisor: Dr Sonia Shah
Associate Advisor: Prof Gita Mishra
The 2019 Women and Heart Disease forum highlighted clear disparities in CVD outcomes between males and females. The report (Arnott et al 2019 Heart, Lung and Circulation), highlighted a need to increase our understanding of sex-specific pathophysiology driving susceptibility to common diseases, and identification of sex-specific risk factors to improve early detection and prevention of CVD in women. Until recently, sex-specific research was underpowered and most studies on heart disease included a much smaller number of female participants. But this is beginning to change with the availability of large biobank data.
This project will require statistical analysis of very large datasets with health records linked to genomic data to address these gaps in our understanding of heart disease in women. This includes data from the UK Biobank cohort in ~500,000 individuals (54% women) and data from the Australian Women’s Longitudinal Study (led by Prof Gita Mishra), a study looking at the factors contributing to the health and wellbeing of over 57,000 Australian women, and is the largest, longest-running project of its kind ever conducted in Australia.
This project will lead to a better understanding of sex-specific risk factors for CVD, which will inform better CVD prevention strategies in women.
Fellowships:
Investigating the relationship between cardiovascular and neurological disorders
NHMRC early career fellowship 2018-2021 ($193,767)Using genomic data to improve the understanding, prevention, and management of cardiovascular disease
National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship 2022-2025 ($520,000)
Project Grants:
- Identifying unintentional effects of medication using statistical genetics analyses of large-scale genetic and genomic data
NHMRC Ideas grant (Lead researcher) 2021-2022 Evaluating the utility of polygenic risk scores within the Queensland Cardiac Genetics Clinic
UQ ECR knowledge exchange and translation fund (Lead researcher) Jan - Dec 2022Using genomics to understand liver metabolism in organ donors and ex-vivo machine perfusion
Metro South Collaborative Grant (Lead researcher) 2022-2024Preparing Australia for use of genomics in prevention of heart disease - A focus on South Asian Australians
Medical Research Future Fund Genomics Mission (Lead researcher) 2022 - 2024TRIAGE: A disease agnostic computational and modelling platform to accelerate variant classification
Medical Research Future Fund Genomics Mission 2022 - 2025The Australian Genetic Diversity Database: towards a more equitable future for genomic medicine in Australia
Medical Research Future Fund Genomics Mission 2022 - 2027ACTIVATION OF AMPK TO TREAT ABDOMINAL AORTIC ANEURYSM (5As)
Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Cardiovascular Mission 2024 - 2027- AAA-Medical: Integrating Synergistic Expertise For Better Treatment Of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
NHMRC Synergy Grant 2024 - 2029 ($5 million) Understanding The Causal Mechanisms Of Antidepressant Exposure And Response. I am leading one of five work packages using cell-based gene expression studies to understand antidepressant mechanism of action
UK Wellcome Trust Mental Health Award 2023 - 2028
Developing UQ's First High-Throughput Genomics Pipeline For Drug Discovery
(2023) UQ Foundation Research Excellence AwardsA Systems Epidemiology Approach To Define Metabolic And Genomic Determinants Of Alzheimer's Disease (NHMRC Project Grant administered by Baker Institute)
(2019–2022) Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes InstituteHealthy heart, healthy brain - using genetic data to investigate the causal relationship between cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease
(2018–2021) NHMRC Early Career Fellowships
- Group Leader, Dr Sonia Shah is the recipient of numerous awards including:
- 2024 Australian Academy of Science Ruth Stephens Gani medal for outstanding contribution to human genetics research
- 2023 1 of 5 global finalists for the Nature Inspiring Women in Science award
- 2023 Rose-Anne Kelso Commemorative Award
- 2022 Queensland Young Tall Poppy Award
- 2022 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award
- 2021/2022 Australian Superstar of STEM
- 2020 Women in Technology Rising Star Science Award
- 2020 Genetic Society of Australasia Early Career Award
- Dr Solal Chauquet: Best ECR oral presentation at Genemappers 2024
- PhD student, Zoe Hunter: Best Student poster at Genemappers 2024
- Dr Clara Jiang: Best ECR oral presentation for the 2024 International Society of Heart Research ECR Symposium
- PhD student, Mr Xiadong Mo, received the 2022 Oral abstract prize at the International Clinical Cardiovascular Genetics Conference
- Post-doctoral research fellow, Dr Clara Jiang attended the 'Falling Walls Lab 2022' where she presented 'Repurposing drugs: breaking the wall of treating depression'.
- Investigating the potential anti-depressive mechanisms of statins: a transcriptomic and Mendelian randomization analysis
- Association of antihypertensive drug target genes with psychiatric disorders: a Mendelian randomization study
- Genome-wide association and Mendelian randomisation analysis provide insights into the pathogenesis of heart failure
- Prof Julie McGaughran and Prof John Atherton (Queensland Cardiac Genetics Clinic, Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital)
- Queensland Liver Transplant Service (Dr Nick Butler, Dr Peter Hodgkinson), Princess Alexandra Hospital
- HERMES Heart Failure Consortium https://www.hermesconsortium.org/
- University College London, UK (Dr Tom Lumbers)
- King's College London, UK (Prof Cathryn Lewis)
- The University of Edinburgh, UK (Prof Andrew McIntosh)