Richard Saffery
Professor
Cancer & Disease Epigenetics
Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Australia
Biography
Doctor Richard Saffery is NHMRC Senior Research Fellow (level B) with over 20 years experience in Molecular and Cellular biology, including 15 in the field of Human Epigenetics. He heads the Cancer & Disease Epigenetics (CDE) laboratory at Murdoch Childrens that uses state-of-the-art multidisciplinary approaches, encompassing genetic, environmental and epigenetic analyses, to understand childhood development and complex disease. Dr Saffery has published over 120 papers, including several recent important discoveries describing the interaction of genetic, environmental, temporal and tissue-specific factors in regulating the early life DNA methylation profile in humans. His team have received over $10 million in grant funding since 2000 including, two NHMRC Healthy Start to Life, eight NHMRC project grants and an NHMRC:EU grant. Since 2006 the CDE team have developed an international reputation in human epigenetics as reflected by many international invitations to present his work. Dr Saffery is the founding Treasurer and State Representative for the Australian Epigenetics Alliance and is an editorial board member of Clinical Epigenetics. He is also a member of the Gravida I nternational College' of global experts who provide leadership on cutting edge research in reproduction, pregnancy, growth and development. Recently, Dr Saffery has been appointed as a Work Package leader of a large multinational European Commission (FP7) funded project (Early Nutrition) examining the early life determinants of metabolic disorders in children.
Research Interest
Epigenetics,environmental and epigenetic analyses
Publications
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Martino D, Maksimovic J, Joo JH, Prescott SL, Saffery R. Genome-scale profiling reveals a subset of genes regulated by DNA methylation that program somatic T-cell phenotypes in humans. Genes and immunity. 2012 Jul 1;13(5):388.
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Saffery R, Morley R, Carlin JB, Joo JH, Ollikainen M, Novakovic B, Andronikos R, Li X, Loke YJ, Carson N, Wallace EM. Cohort profile: The peri/post-natal epigenetic twins study. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2011 Oct 3;41(1):55-61.
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Martino D, Loke YJ, Gordon L, Ollikainen M, Cruickshank MN, Saffery R, Craig JM. Longitudinal, genome-scale analysis of DNA methylation in twins from birth to 18 months of age reveals rapid epigenetic change in early life and pair-specific effects of discordance. Genome biology. 2013 May 22;14(5):R42.
