Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences Department of Physiology

Profile

I completed my Bachelor of Biomedical Science at The University of Melbourne in 2002, majoring in genetics. I followed this with a BSc (Honours) year in genetics in 2003, investigating fatty acid utilization and its regulation in Aspergillus nidulans. In 2004, I joined the department as a research assistant in the genetic physiology lab. In 2007, I began my PhD, working on an investigation into the genetic determinants of adult height.

Research Profile, Interests and Recent Publications

My research is focused on studying the population variation of adult height, which we are using as a model complex trait. I am currently investigating how genetic variants on a region of chromosome 3 influence the variation in adult height.

Recent Publications:
Ellis JA, Scurrah KJ, Cobb JE, Zaloumis SG, Duncan AE, Harrap SB. Baldness and the androgen receptor: the AR polyglycine repeat polymorphism does not confer susceptibility to androgenetic alopecia. Hum Genet. 2007 May;121(3-4):451-7.

Ellis JA, Scurrah KJ, Duncan AE, Lamantia A, Byrnes GB, Harrap SB. Comprehensive multi-stage linkage analyses identify a locus for adult height on chromosome 3p in a healthy Caucasian population. Hum Genet. 2007 Apr;121(2):213-22.

Hynes MJ, Murray SL, Duncan A, Khew GS, Davis MA. Regulatory genes controlling fatty acid catabolism and peroxisomal functions in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Eukaryot Cell. 2006 May;5(5):794-805.

Research Funding

The Elizabeth and Vernon Puzey
Postgraduate Research Scholarship in Biomedical Research. 2007 onwards

Recent presentations:
Duncan A, Scurrah K, Harrap S, Ellis J. SNP association analysis of Filamin B (FLNB) and adult height in the Victorian Family Heart Study (VFHS). Poster presentation at the
Genemappers’ Conference, Brisbane, August 2007.

Supervisor

Justine Ellis