Griffith University

Study Opportunities

Available student projects:

• Human cellular models of familial Parkinson’s disease
• Hunting for familial Parkinson's disease genes
• Studying risk factors for complex neurodegenerative disease
• Molecular characterisation of Parkinson's disease
• Curing Parkinson’s disease in vitro
• Using human olfactory neurosphere derived (hONS) cell lines to develop Parkinson's biomarkers

20 Recent Publications

1. Sharma, M., Maraganore, D.M., Ioannidis, J.P., Riess, O., Aasly, J.O., Annesi, G., Mellick, G.D., et al., Role of sepiapterin reductase gene at the PARK3 locus in Parkinson disease. Neurobiology of Aging (Ms. No.: NBA-10-832R1), Accepted 2011.
2. Lehn, A.C., Mellick, G. and Boyle, R., Teaching NeuroImages: Neuroferritinopathy. Neurology (MS ID#: NEUROLOGY/2011/391805), Accepted 2011.
3. Matheson, S., G., B., Dissanayaka, N., Pachana, N., Mellick, G., O’Sullivan, J., Silburn, P., Sellbach, A. and Marsh, R., Validity and reliability of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory in Parkinson’s disease. Australasian Journal on Ageing AAJA-2010-106.R1., Accepted 2010. In Press.
4. Manathunga, C., Pitt, R., Cox, L., Boreham, P., Mellick, G.D., Lant, P. and Critchley, C., Evaluating industry-based doctoral research programs: perspectives and outcomes of Australian Cooperative Research Centre graduates. Studies in Higher Education CSHE-2010-0487., Accepted 2010. In Press.
5. Sutherland, G.T., Siebert, G.A., Kril, J.J. and Mellick, G.D., Knowing Me, Knowing You: Can Knowledge of Risk Factors for Alzheimer's Disease Prove Useful in Understanding the Pathogenesis of Parkinson's Disease? J Alzheimers Dis 2011.
6. Saad, M., Lesage, S., Saint-Pierre, A., Corvol, J.C., Zelenika, D., Lambert, J.C., Vidailhet, M., Mellick, G.D., et al., Genome-wide association study confirms BST1 and suggests a locus on 12q24 as the risk loci for Parkinson's disease in the European population. Hum Mol Genet 2011. 20(3): 615-27.
7. Mellick, G.D. and Ross, O.A., Caffeine and Parkinson's disease: are we getting our fix on risk-modifying gene-environment interactions? Eur J Neurol 2011. 18(5): 671-2.
8. Kruger, R., Sharma, M., Riess, O., Gasser, T., Van Broeckhoven, C., Theuns, J., Aasly, J., Annesi, G., Mellick, G.D., et al., A large-scale genetic association study to evaluate the contribution of Omi/HtrA2 (PARK13) to Parkinson's disease. Neurobiol Aging 2011. 32(3): 548 e9-18.
9. Evangelou, E., Maraganore, D.M., Annesi, G., Brighina, L., Brice, A., Elbaz, A., Ferrarese, C., Hadjigeorgiou, G.M., Krueger, R., Lambert, J.C., Lesage, S., Markopoulou, K., Mellick, G.D., Meeus, B., Pedersen, N.L., Quattrone, A., Van Broeckhoven, C., Sharma, M., Silburn, P.A., Tan, E.K., Wirdefeldt, K. and Ioannidis, J.P., Non-replication of association for six polymorphisms from meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of Parkinson's disease: large-scale collaborative study. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 2011. 153B(1): 220-8.
10. Elbaz, A., Ross, O.A., Ioannidis, J.P., Soto-Ortolaza, A.I., Moisan, F., Aasly, J., Annesi, G., Bozi, M., Brighina, L., Chartier-Harlin, M.C., Destee, A., Ferrarese, C., Ferraris, A., Gibson, J.M., Gispert, S., Hadjigeorgiou, G.M., Jasinska-Myga, B., Klein, C., Kruger, R., Lambert, J.C., Lohmann, K., van de Loo, S., Loriot, M.A., Lynch, T., Mellick, G.D., et al., Independent and joint effects of the MAPT and SNCA genes in Parkinson disease. Ann Neurol 2011. 69(5): 778-792.
11. Dissanayaka, N.N., Sellbach, A., Silburn, P.A., O'Sullivan, J.D., Marsh, R. and Mellick, G.D., Factors associated with depression in Parkinson's disease. J Affect Disord 2011. 132(1-2): 82-8.
12. Dissanayaka, N.N., Sellbach, A., Matheson, S., O'Sullivan, J.D., Silburn, P.A., Byrne, G.J., Marsh, R. and Mellick, G.D., Anxiety disorders in Parkinson's disease: prevalence and risk factors. Mov Disord 2011. 25(7): 838-45.
13. White, N., Johnson, H., Silburn, P., Mellick, G., Dissanayaka, N. and Mengersen, K., Probabilistic subgroup identification using Bayesian finite mixture modelling: A case study in Parkinson's disease phenotype identification. Stat Methods Med Res 2010.
14. Mellick, G.D., Silburn, P.A., Sutherland, G.T. and Siebert, G.A., Exploiting the potential of molecular profiling in Parkinson's disease: current practice and future probabilities. Expert Rev Mol Diagn 2010. 10(8): 1035-1050.
15. Matigian, N., Abrahamsen, G., Sutharsan, R., Cook, A.L., Vitale, A.M., Nouwens, A., Bellette, B., An, J., Anderson, M., Beckhouse, A.G., Bennebroek, M., Cecil, R., Chalk, A.M., Cochrane, J., Fan, Y., Feron, F., McCurdy, R., McGrath, J.J., Murrell, W., Perry, C., Raju, J., Ravishankar, S., Silburn, P.A., Sutherland, G.T., Mahler, S., Mellick, G.D., Wood, S.A., Sue, C.M., Wells, C.A. and Mackay-Sim, A., Disease-specific, neurosphere-derived cells as models for brain disorders. Dis Model Mech 2010. 3(11-12): 785-98.
16. Evangelou, E., Maraganore, D.M., Annesi, G., Brighina, L., Brice, A., Elbaz, A., Ferrarese, C., Hadjigeorgiou, G.M., Krueger, R., Lambert, J.C., Lesage, S., Markopoulou, K., Mellick, G.D., Meeus, B., Pedersen, N.L., Quattrone, A., Van Broeckhoven, C., Sharma, M., Silburn, P.A., Tan, E.K., Wirdefeldt, K. and Ioannidis, J.P., Non-replication of association for six polymorphisms from meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of Parkinson's disease: large-scale collaborative study. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 2010. 153B(1): 220-8.
17. Dissanayaka, N.N., Sellbach, A., Matheson, S., O'Sullivan, J.D., Silburn, P.A., Byrne, G.J., Marsh, R. and Mellick, G.D., Anxiety disorders in Parkinson's disease: prevalence and risk factors. Mov Disord 2010. 25(7): 838-45.
18. Sutherland, G.T., Siebert, G.A., Newman, J.R., Silburn, P.A., Boyle, R.S., O'Sullivan, J.D. and Mellick, G.D., Haplotype analysis of the PARK 11 gene, GIGYF2, in sporadic Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord 2009. 24(3): 449-52.
19. Sutherland, G.T., Matigian, N.A., Chalk, A.M., Anderson, M.J., Silburn, P.A., Mackay-Sim, A., Wells, C.A. and Mellick, G.D., A cross-study transcriptional analysis of Parkinson's disease. PLoS One 2009. 4(3): e4955.
20. Sutherland, G.T., Halliday, G.M., Silburn, P.A., Mastaglia, F.L., Rowe, D.B., Boyle, R.S., O'Sullivan, J.D., Ly, T., Wilton, S.D. and Mellick, G.D., Do polymorphisms in the familial Parkinsonism genes contribute to risk for sporadic Parkinson's disease? Mov Disord 2009. 24(6): 833-8.