Miss Ruth E Pidsley  BA, MSc
PhD Student

biography

Ruth is a PhD student at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, funded by an MRC studentship to investigate associations between epigenetic variation and psychiatric phenotypes.

Ruth graduated from Oxford University in 2006 with a BA in Human Sciences. She then spent two years working as a research assistant in a psychiatric genetics laboratory at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford. She joined the SGDP centre in 2008, and was awarded an MSc in Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry in 2009. The primary aim of her PhD is to identify DNA methylation changes associated with major psychiatric disorders through investigations of post-mortem brain tissue and clinically-ascertained sample cohorts.

publications

Pidsley R, Dempster EL, Troakes C, Al-Sarraj S, Mill J. (2012) Epigenetic and genetic variation at the IGF2/H19 imprinting control region on 11p15.5 is associated with cerebellum weight. Epigenetics

Dempster EL*, Pidsley R*, Schalkwyk LC, Owens S, Georgiades A, Kane F, Kalidindi S, Picchioni M, Kravariti E, Toulopoulou T, Murray RM, Mill J. (2011) Disease-associated epigenetic changes in monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Human Molecular Genetics

Edwards A, Treiber CD, Breuss M, Pidsley R, Huang GJ, Cleak J, Oliver PL, Flint J, Keays DA. (2011) Cytoarchitectural disruption of the superior colliculus and an enlarged acoustic startle response in the Tuba1a mutant mouse. Neuroscience

Pidsley R, Mill J. (2011) Research Highlights: epigenetic changes to serotonin receptor gene expression in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Epigenomics

Engmann O, Hortobágyi T, Pidsley R, Troakes C, Bernstein HG, Kreutz MR, Mill J, Nikolic M, Giese KP. (2011) Schizophrenia is associated with dysregulation of a Cdk5 activator that regulates synaptic protein expression and cognition. Brain

Pidsley R, Mill J. (2011) Epigenetic Studies of Psychosis: Current Findings, Methodological Approaches, and Implications for Postmortem Research. Biological Psychiatry

Bell CG, Finer S, Lindgren CM, Wilson GA, Rakyan VK, Teschendorff AE, Akan P, Stupka E, Down TA, Prokopenko I, Morison IM, Mill J, Pidsley R, International Type 2 Diabetes 1q Consortium, Deloukas P, Frayling TM, Hattersley AT, McCarthy MI, Beck S, Hitman GA. (2010) Integrated Genetic and Epigenetic Analysis Identifies Haplotype-Specific Methylation in the FTO Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity Susceptibility Locus. PLoS ONE

Keays DA, Cleak J, Huang GJ, Edwards A, Braun A, Treiber CD, Pidsley R, Flint J. (2010) The Role of Tuba1a in Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis and the Formation of the Dentate Gyrus. Developmental Neuroscience

Pidsley R, Dempster E, Mill, J. (2010) Brain weight in males is correlated with DNA methylation at IGF2. Molecular Psychiatry