Associate Professor Jake Gratten is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Fellow and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), The University of Queensland. He leads the Cognitive Health Genomics group at Mater Research with a team of two postdocs and two RHD students.
Jake performs research on the genomics of neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration and aims at improving our current understanding of the causes of psychiatric and neurological disorders, such as autism, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease, through innovative analysis of the information encoded in patient’s genomes. He believes that by untangling the role of genetics in the onset and risk of developing psychiatric and neurological disorders, we will be able to advance the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illnesses and improve the quality of life for affected individuals, as well as to reduce healthcare costs.
Jake’s research is currently focused on understanding the genetic relationship between parental age and risk of mental illness. He also has interests in uncovering the role of the gut microbiome in the development of anxiety and gastrointestinal problems in patients with autism, and in the genomics of sex differences in psychiatric and neurological disorders.
Jake has authored more than 50 publications, including many in high-ranking journals such as Nature Genetics and Nature Neuroscience, and as lead investigator has received more than $2.75 Million in competitive funding from the NHMRC, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and Autism CRC Limited — the world's first national, cooperative research effort focused on autism. He is currently collaborating with researchers from across Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and the United States and he is a member of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium.
Through this research, Jake has made integral contributions to the interpretation of de novo mutations in psychiatric disorders, including in the context of risk of mental health issues associated with parental age. His research contributions have been recognized with invitations to write Reviews and News and Views articles for top tier journals, including Nature Genetics, Nature Neuroscience and Molecular Psychiatry.
“I made the decision to focus my research career on the genomics of mental health because I am driven to make discoveries that translate into improved quality of life and treatment options for the many people living with psychiatric and neurological disorders.”