Research

Contact Details

PACE Building, UQ

Quantitative Genetics Group
The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute
Level 4, R Wing
Princess Alexandra Hospital
Ipswich Road
Woolloongabba, QLD 4102
Australia

Office Location:
Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence
20 Cornwall Street
Woolloongabba, QLD 4102
Australia

Email: a.mcrae [at] uq.edu.au

Brief C.V.

Positions Held

  • Research Fellow, University of Queensland Diamantina Institute (Brisbane, Australia), 2012-present.
  • Adjunct Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, 2010-present.
  • Research Officer, then Senior Research Officier, Queensland Institute of Medical Research (Brisbane, Australia), 2006-2011.
  • Research Associate, AgReseach (Invermay, New Zealand), 2002.

Education

  • PhD, University of Edinburgh, 2006. THESIS
  • BSc (Hons), Statisics and Genetics, University of Otago, 2002.

Research Support

  • Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grant. McRae AF and Painter JN. Inheritance of DNA methylation state in humans, 2011-2013.
  • Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHRMC) Australian Based Biomedical Fellowship, 2008-2010.
  • Commonwealth Scholarship for PhD study, 2002-2005.

Publications

  1. Byrne EM, Johnson J, McRae AF, Nyholt DR, Medland SE, Gehrman PR, Heath AC, Madden PAF, Montgomery GW, Chenevix-Trench G, Martin NG. A genome-wide association study of caffeine-related sleep disturbance: Confirmation of a role for the adenosine receptor. Sleep – in press.
  2. Powell JE, Henders AK, McRae AF, Wright MJ, Martin NG, Dermitzakis ET, Visscher PM, Montgomery GW. The Brisbane Systems Genetics Study: Genetical genomics meets complex trait genetic. PLoS ONE – in press.
  3. Jablensky A, Angelicheva D, Donohoe GJ, Cruickshank M, Azmanov DN, Morris DW, McRae AF, Weickert CS, Carter KW, Chandler D, Alexandrov B, Usheva A, Morar B, Verbrugghe PL, Filipovska A, Rackham O, Bishop AR, Rasmussen KØ, Dragovic M, Cooper M, Phillips M, Badcock J, Bramon-Bosch E, Almeida OP, Flicker L, Gill M, Corvin A, MacGregor S, Kalaydjieva L. Promoter polymorphisms in two overlapping 6p25 genes implicate mitochondrial proteins in cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry – in press. AOP
  4. Powell JE, Henders AK, McRae AF, Wright MJ, Martin NG, Dermitzakis ET, Montgomery GW, Visscher PM. Genetic control of gene expression in whole blood and lymphoblastoid cell lines is largely independent. Genome Research 22: 456-466 (2012). PDF
  5. Mosing MA, Medland SE, McRae AF, Landers G, Wright MJ, Martin NG. Genetic influences on life-span and its relationship to personality: A 16 year follow-up study of a sample of ageing twins. Psychosomatic Medicine 74: 16-22 (2012) PDF
  6. Luong HTT, Chaplin J, McRae AF, Medland SE, Willemsen G, Nyholt DR, Henders AK, Hoekstra C, Duffy DL, Martin NG, Boomsma DI, Montgomery GW, Painter JN. Variation in BMPR1B, TGFRB1 and BMPR2 and control of dizygotic twinning. Twin Research and Human Genetics 14: 408-16 (2011) PDF
  7. Larsson M, Duffy DL, Zhu G, Liu JZ, Macgregor S, McRae AF, Wright MJ, Sturm RA, Mackey DA, Mongomery GW, Martin NG, Medland SE. GWAS findings for human iris patterns: Associations with variants in genes that influence normal neuronal pattern development. The American Journal of Human Genetics 89: 334-343 (2011) PDF
  8. Frank RAW*, McRae AF*, Pocklington AJ, van de Lagemaat, LN, Navarro, P, Croning MDR, Komiyama NH, Armstrong JD, Finn RD, Malloy MP, MacLean AW, Harris SE, Starr JM, Bhaskar SS, Howard EK, Hunt SE, Coffey AJ, Ranganath V, Deloukas P, Rogers J, Muir WJ, Deary IJ, Blackwood DH, Visscher PM, Grant SGN. Clustered coding variants in the synaptic receptor complexes of individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. PLoS ONE 6: e19011 (2011) (* joint first authors) PDF
  9. Ferreira MA, McRae AF, Medland SE, Nyholt DR, Gordon SD, Wright MJ, Henders AK, Madden PA, Visscher PM, Wray NR, Heath AC, Montgomery GW, Duffy DL, Martin NG. Association between ORMDL3, IL1RL1 and a deletion on chromosome 17q21 with asthma risk in Australia. European Journal of Human Genetics 19: 458-464 (2011) PDF
  10. Sommerlad S, McRae AF, McDonald B, Johnstone I, Cuttell L, Seddon JM, O’Leary CA. Congenital sensorineural deafness in Australian Stumpy-Tail Cattle Dogs is an autosomal recessive trait that maps to CFA10. PLoS ONE 5: e13364 (2010) PDF
  11. Gratten J, Wilson AJ, McRae AF, Beraldi D, Visscher PM, Pemberton JM, Slate J. No evidence for warming climate theory of coat colour change in Soay sheep: a comment on Maloney et al. Biology Letters 6: 678-679 (2010) PDF
  12. Liu JZ, McRae AF, Nyholt DR, Medland SE, Wray NR, Brown KM; AMFS Investigators, Hayward NK, Montgomery GW, Visscher PM, Martin NG, Macgregor S. A Versatile Gene-Based Test for Genome-wide Association Studies. American Journal of Human Genetics 87: 139-145 (2010) PDF
  13. Liu JZ, Medland SE, Wright MJ, Henders AK, Heath AC, Madden PA, Duncan A, Montgomery GW, Martin NG, McRae AF. Genome-wide association study of height and body mass index in Australian twin families. Twin Research and Human Genetics 13: 179-193 (2010) PDF
  14. Johnston SE, Beraldi D, McRae AF, Pemberton JM, Slate J. Horn type and horn length genes map to the same chromosomal region in Soay sheep. Heredity 104: 196-205 (2010) PDF
  15. Knight HM, Pickard BS, Maclean A, Malloy MP, Soares DC, McRae AF, Condie A, White A, Hawkins W, McGhee K, van Beck M, Macintyre D, Starr JM, Deary IJ, Visscher PM, Porteous DJ, Cannon RE, St Clair D, Muir WJ, Blackwood DHR . A cytogenetic abnormality and rare coding variants identify ABCA13 as a candidate gene in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. American Journal of Human Genetics 85: 833-846 (2009) PDF
  16. Medland SE, Nyholt DR, Painter JN, McEvoy BP, McRae AF, Zhu G, Gordon SD, Wray NR, Ferreira MAR, Wright MJ, Henders AK, Campbell MJ, Duffy DL, Hansell NK, Macgregor S, Slutske WS, Heath AC, Montgomery GW, Martin NG . Common variants in the Trichohyalin gene are associated with straight hair in Europeans. American Journal of Human Genetics 85: 750-755 (2009) PDF
  17. Byrne EM, McRae AF, Duffy DL, Zhao ZZ, Martin NG, Whitfield JB, Visscher PM, Montgomery GW. Family-based mitochondrial association study of traits related to type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome in adolescents. Diabetologia 52: 2359-2368 (2009) PDF
  18. Byrne EM, McRae AF, Duffy DL, Zhao ZZ, Martin NG, Wright MJ, Montgomery GW, Visscher PM. Association study of common mitochondrial variants and cognitive ability. Behavior Genetics 39: 504-512 (2009) PDF
  19. Keller MC, McRae AF, McGaughran JM, Visscher PM, Martin NG, Montgomery GW. Paternal isodisomy of Chromosome 2 with no apparent phenotypic effects detected using genomewide association data. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A 149: 1823-1826 (2009) PDF
  20. McEvoy BP, Montgomery GW, McRae AF, Ripatti S, Perola M, Spector TD, Cherkas L, Ahmadi KR, Boomsma D, Willemsen G, Hottenga JJ, Pederson NL, Magnusson PKE, Ohm Kyvik K, Christensen K, Kaprio J, Heikkilä K, Palotie A, Widen E, Muilu J, Syvänen AC, Liljedahl U, Hardiman O, Cronin S, Peltonen L, Martin NG, Visscher PM. Geographical structure and differential natural selection amongst North European populations. Genome Research 19: 804-814 (2009) PDF
  21. Benyamin B, Visscher PM, McRae AF. Family-based genome-wide association studies. Pharmacogenomics 10: 181-190 (2009) PDF
  22. Kaminsky ZA, Tang T, Wang SC, Ptak C, Oh GHT, Wong AHC, Feldcamp LA, Virtanen C, Halfvarson J, Tysk C, McRae AF, Visscher PM, Montgomery GW, Gottesman II, Martin NG, Petronis A. DNA methylation profiles in monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Nature Genetics 41: 240-245 (2009) PDF
  23. Benyamin B*, McRae AF*, Zhu G, Gordon S, Henders AK, Palotie A, Peltonen L, Martin NG, Montgomery GW, Whitfield JB, Visscher PM. Variants in TF and HFE explain ~40% of genetic variation in serum transferrin levels. American Journal of Human Genetics 85: 60-65 (2009) (* joint first authors) PDF
  24. Middelberg RP, Gordon SD, Zhu G, McRae AF, Montgomery GW, Martin NG, Whitfield JB. Linkage and association analyses of longitudinally measured lipid phenotypes in adolescence. Twin Research and Human Genetics 11: 603-620 (2008) PDF
  25. Sved JA, McRae AF, Visscher PM. Divergence between human populations estimated from linkage disequilibrium. American Journal of Human Genetics 83: 737-743 (2008) PDF
  26. Byrne EM, McRae AF, Zhao ZZ, Martin NG, Montgomery GW, Visscher PM. The use of common mitochondrial variants to detect and characterise population structure in the Australian population: Implications for genome-wide association studies. European Journal of Human Genetics 16: 1396-1403 (2008) PDF
  27. Keith JM, McRae AF, Duffy D, Mengersen K, Visscher PM. Calculation of IBD probabilities with dense SNP or sequence data. Genetic Epidemiology 32: 513-519 (2008) PDF
  28. McRae AF, Byrne EM, Zhao ZZ, Montgomery GW, Visscher PM. Power and SNP tagging in whole mitochondrial genome association studies. Genome Research 18: 911-917 (2008) PDF
  29. Gratten J, Wilson AJ, McRae AF, Beraldi D, Visscher PM, Pemberton JM, Slate J. A localized negative genetic correlation constrains microevolution of coal color in wild sheep. Science, 319: 318-320 (2008) PDF
  30. Beraldi D, McRae AF, Gratten J, Slate J, Visscher PM, Pemberton JM. Mapping QTL underlying fitness-related traits in a free-living sheep population. Evolution 61: 1403-1416 (2007) PDF
  31. McRae AF, Matigan NA, Vadlamudi L, Mulley JC, Mowry B, Martin NG, Berkovic SF, Hayward NK, Visscher PM. Replicated effects of sex and genotyping on gene expression in human lymphoblastoid cell lines. Human Molecular Genetics 16: 364-373 (2007) PDF
  32. Gratten J, Beraldi D, Lowder DV, McRae AF, Visscher PM, Pemberton JM, Slate J. Compelling evidence that a single nucleotide substitution in TYRP1 is responsible for coat-colour polymorphism in a free-living population of Soay sheep. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274: 619-626 (2007) PDF
  33. Beraldi D, McRae AF, Gratten J, Pilkington JG, Slate J, Visscher PM, Pemberton JM. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping of resistance to strongyles and coccidia in the free-living Soay sheep (Ovis aries). International Journal for Parasitology 37: 121-129 (2007) PDF
  34. Anderson CA, McRae AF, Visscher PM. A simple linear regression method for QTL linkage analysis with censored observations. Genetics 173: 1735-1745 (2006) PDF
  35. Beraldi D, McRae AF, Gratten J, Slate J, Visscher PM, Pemberton JM. Development of a linkage map and mapping of phenotypic polymorphisms in a free living population of Soay sheep (Ovis aries). Genetics 173: 1521-1537 (2006) PDF
  36. McRae AF, Beraldi D. Examination of a region showing linkage map discrepancies across sheep breeds. Mammalian Genome, 17: 346-353 (2006) PDF
  37. McRae AF, Pemberton JM, Visscher PM. Modeling linkage disequilibrium in natural populations: The example of the Soay sheep population of St. Kilda, Scotland. Genetics 171: 251-258 (2005) PDF
  38. McRae AF, Bishop SC, Walling GA, Wilson AD, Visscher PM. Mapping of multiple quantitative trait loci for growth and carcass traits in a complex commercial sheep pedigree. Animal Science 80: 135-142 (2005) PDF
  39. Campbell AW, Bain WE, McRae AF, Broad TE, Johnstone PD, Dodds KG, Veenvliet B, Greer GJ, Glass BC, Beattie AE, Jopson NB, McEwan JC. Bone density in sheep: Genetic variation and quantitative trait localization. Bone 33: 540-548 (2003) PDF
  40. McRae AF, McEwan JC, Dodds KG, Wilson T, Crawford AM, Slate J. Linkage disequilibrium in domestic sheep. Genetics 160: 1113-1122 (2002) PDF

Last updated: 01 April 2012