Biography
I am a Research Assistant Professor and Principle Investigator at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute and the Dept. of Psychiatry. My research aims to explore the impact on neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders of variants in under-studied regions of the genome, such as dark (inaccessible) regions and non-protein-coding regions, by combining short- and long-read sequencing and methodological advances in a novel, pedigree-based approach. I am also interested in investigating gender differences in neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. An aim of my work is to adopt a more global perspective on genetic risk variants to enhance biological understanding of these conditions, ultimately improving diagnostics and therapeutics. I have developed bioinformatics tools to improve our ability to study the effect of common and rare, protein-coding and regulatory variants (SuRFR (PMID:25400697) and PECAN (PMID: 39080331). These studies have led to a greater understanding of the types of genetic variants segregating in families and their possible functional roles in susceptibility to psychiatric illness. My work has further underscored the lack of knowledge about the effects of genetic variants, and crucially, on the limitations of some of the commonly used sequencing technologies to fully describe the variation (PMID:37468985). I have extensive teaching experience, both with Trinity and as a part-time lecturer with Maynooth University, and supervision of undergrad/postgrad student research projects at Edinburgh University and Trinity. I have 10+ years PPI and science communication experience, including organizing PPI events and scientific conferences and am a core member of the Outreach Committee for the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), a global research initiative involving 900+ scientists. I am a member of the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI) Executive Committee, the TTMI Space Committee, Chair of the TTMI Engaged Research Hub and member of the steering committee for TrinityOmics. I am the recipient of an Early Career Investigator Programme Award from the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics (2024). I have received funding for pilot projects, travel awards, summer studentships and a Research Ireland (formerly SFI-IRC) Pathway award, supporting my own research project with a PhD student (July 2025 " June 2029). Most recently I have received funding for a second PhD student through the Trinity Research Doctorate Awards (TRDAs), who will join my group in September 2026.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Helena L. Davies, Niamh Ryan, Kylie K. Reed, Natasha Berthold, Jared G. Maina, Ruth McNulty, Abigail ter Kuile, Ofure Ubah, Eva M. Trujillo-ChiVacuán, Eva C. Schulte, Jessica Yang, M. van Milligen de Wit, Estela M. Bruxel, Joseph D. Deak, Maria Koromina, Thomas Sollie, Alice Braun, Cynthia M. Bulik, Cathryn M. Lewis, Danielle M. Dick, Jerry Guintivano, Howard J. Edenberg, From Genomes to Conversations: Outreach and Engagement in Psychiatric Genetics, Behavior Genetics, 2026
Helena L. Davies, Niamh Ryan, Kylie Reed, Natasha Berthold, Jared G. Maina, Jerry Guintivano, Howard J. Edenberg, M67. STRATEGIC OUTREACH IN PSYCHIATRIC GENETICS: WHAT, WHY, AND HOW, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 99, 2025, p142 - 143, p142-143
Hayley Macleod, Nadine Copty, Damien Doherty, Richard Power, Kate Ahearne, Niamh Ryan, Khalid Saeed, Ellen O"Rourke, Rehman Faryal, Luisa Weiß, Sarah Kelliher, Barry Kevane, Patricia B. Maguire, Fionnuala Ní Áinle, Increasing clinical recruitment rate to a single-site observational study: a quality improvement study, BMJ Open Quality, 14, (1), 2025, pe003091 - e003091, pe003091-e003091
Niamh Ryan, Cathal Ormond, Juan M. Peralta, Ravindranath Duggirala, Satish Kumar, Elizabeth A. Heron, Joanne E. Curran, David C. Glahn, John Blangero, Aiden Corvin, M33. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS FROM A CNV LINKAGE ANALYSIS OF A MEXICAN AMERICAN PEDIGREE COHORT, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 99, 2025, p125 - 125, p125-125
Niamh Ryan, Ruth McNulty, Grace Lutter, Helena Davies, Jerry Guintivano, T65. SUPPORTING THE TRANSLATION OF RESEARCH INTO OUTREACH: FINDINGS FROM THE PGC OUTREACH COMMITTEE QUESTIONNAIRE, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 99, 2025, p191 - 191, p191-191
Cathal Ormond, Niamh Ryan, Juan M. Peralta, Ravindranath Duggirala, Satish Kumar, Elizabeth A. Heron, Joanne E. Curran, David C. Glahn, John Blangero, Aiden Corvin, 58. A RARE, DELETERIOUS COPY NUMBER VARIANT CO-SEGREGATING WITH MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER IN A MEXICAN-AMERICAN PEDIGREE, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 99, 2025, p84 - 84, p84-84
Ryan, N. and Ormond, C. and Brady, P. and Heron, E. and Corvin, A., Genomics of psychiatric disorders, Neurogenetics for the Practitioner, 2024, p79-94
Ormond C, Ryan NM, Byerley W, Heron EA, Corvin A, Investigating copy number variants in schizophrenia pedigrees using a new consensus pipeline called PECAN, Scientific Reports, 2024
Cathal Ormond, Niamh Ryan, Michal "áp, William Byerley, Aiden Corvin, Elizabeth A. Heron, BICEP: Bayesian inference for rare genomic variant causality evaluation in pedigrees, Briefings in Bioinformatics, 26, (1), 2024
Aiden Corvin, Andrew M. McIntosh, Niamh Ryan, FAMILY-BASED STUDIES IN PSYCHIATRIC GENOMICS: PROGRESS AND RELEVANCE IN 2024, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 87, 2024, p31 - 32, p31-32
Ormond C, Ryan NM, Hedman A, Cannon T, Sullivan P, Gill M, Hultman CM, Heron EA, Johansson, V, and Corvin, A, Whole genome sequencing study of identical twins discordant for psychosis., Translational Psychiatry, 2024
Cathal Ormond, Niamh Ryan, William Byerley, Elizabeth A. Heron, Aiden Corvin, PROGRESS UPDATE FROM THE PGC PEDIGREE SEQUENCING WORKING GROUP: RESULTS AND NOVEL METHODOLOGIES, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 87, 2024, p33 - 33, p33-33
Ormond C., Ryan N.M., Heron E.A., Gill M., Byerley W., Corvin A., Ultrarare Missense Variants Implicated in Utah Pedigrees Multiply Affected With Schizophrenia, Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, 3, (4), 2023, p797 - 802, p797-802
Ryan, N.M. and Corvin, A., Investigating the dark-side of the genome: a barrier to human disease variant discovery?, Biological Research, 56, (1), 2023
Ryan N, Heron EA, Evidence for parent-of-origin effects in autism spectrum disorder: a narrative review, Journal of Applied Genetics, 64, 2023, p303 - 317
Ryan N, Ormond C, Chang YC, Contreras J, Raventos H, Gill M, Heron E, Mathews CA, & Corvin A, Identity-by-descent analysis of a large Tourette's syndrome pedigree from Costa Rica implicates genes involved in neuronal development and signal transduction, Molecular Psychiatry, 2022
Schizophrenia genomics in, editor(s)Evangelia Eirini Tsermpini Martin Alda George P. Patrinos , Psychiatric Genomics, Elsevier, 2022, pp17 - 41, [yan, Niamh M and Ormond, Cathal and Brady, Philip and Heron, Elizabeth A and Corvin, Aiden]
Ormond C, Ryan NM, Corvin A, Heron EA., Converting single nucleotide variants between genome builds: from cautionary tale to solution., Briefings in bioinformatics, 2021
Daniela Tropea, Snow Bach, Aiden Corvin, Methyl-Cpg-Binding Protein 2 Mediates Overlapping Mechanisms Across Brain Disorders, American College of Neuropshychopharmacology Annual meeting, on-line, edited by Neuropsychopharmacology , 2020
, Altered DNA methylation associated with a translocation linked to major mental illness., NPJ schizophrenia, 2018
, Genome-wide haplotype-based association analysis of major depressive disorder in Generation Scotland and UK Biobank., Translational psychiatry, 2017
, Identification of a novel locus on chromosome 2q13, which predisposes to clinical vertebral fractures independently of bone density., Annals of the rheumatic diseases, 2017
, Balanced translocation linked to psychiatric disorder, glutamate, and cortical structure/function., NPJ schizophrenia, 2016
, Preliminary assessment of pre-morbid DNA methylation in individuals at high genetic risk of mood disorders., Bipolar disorders, 2016
, SuRFing the genomics wave: an R package for prioritising SNPs by functionality., Genome medicine, 2014
Contributions, Margaret Drabble, ed., Oxford Companion to English Literature, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1985, [D. Berman]
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Niamh Ryan, Cathal Ormond, Arsalan Arsalan, Elizabeth Heron, Muhammad Ayub, Aiden Corvin, T84. RARE VARIANT ANALYSIS IN A PAIR OF PAKISTANI PEDIGREES WITH A HIGH LOAD OF PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS, European Neuropsychopharmacology, Abstracts of the World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics (WCPG), October 10-14, 202, 2023
Cathal Ormond, Niamh Ryan, William Byerley, Elizabeth Heron, Aiden Corvin, W87. RARE, PATHOGENIC COPY NUMBER VARIANTS CO-SEGREGATE WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA IN PEDIGREE COHORT, European Neuropsychopharmacology, World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics (WCPG), October 10-14, 2023, 2023
C Ormond, N Ryan, W Byerley, A Corvin, E Heron, T16. A Bayesian framework to model pedigree-based causality using next-generation sequencing data, European Neuropsychopharmacology, Abstracts of the World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics, September 13-17, 63, 2022, ppe176 - e177
Niamh M. Ryan Cathal Ormond Kazima Bulaeva Elizabeth A Heron Michael Gill Aiden Corvin, TH75. SEQUENCING STUDY OF A CONSANGUINEOUS PEDIGREE WITH A HIGH LOAD OF SCHIZOPHRENIA, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 2021
Cathal Ormond Niamh M. Ryan William Byerley Elizabeth A Heron Michael Gill Aiden Corvin, TU74. A CO-SEGREGATION ANALYSIS OF ULTRA-RARE VARIANTS IN FAMILIES MULTIPLY AFFECTED BY SCHIZOPHRENIA USING WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 2021
Niamh Ryan, Cathal Ormond, Yi-Chieh Chang, Carol A. Mathews, Elizabeth Heron, Michael Gill, Aiden Corvin, M60 GENOMIC ANALYSIS OF A LARGE TOURETTE SYNDROME PEDIGREE, European Neuropsychopharmacology, XXVIIth World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics (WCPG), Los Angeles, California, 2019, 2019
Cathal Ormond, Eliabeth Heron, Niamh Ryan, Viktoria Johansson, Anna Hedman, Christina Hultman, Patrick Sullivan, Michael Gill, Aiden Corvin, M16 IDENTICAL BUT NOT THE SAME - WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING OF MONOZYGOTIC TWINS DISCORDANT FOR PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS, European Neuropsychopharmacology, XXVIIth World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics (WCPG), Los Angeles, California, 2019, 2019
Ryan, Niamh & Ormond, Cathal & Arsalan, Arsalan & Byerley, William & Ayub, Muhammad & Matthews, Carol & Heron, Elizabeth & Gill, Michael & Corvin, Aiden., S97DETECTION OF RARE INHERITED CNVS ASSOCIATED WITH PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS FROM FAMILY WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING DATA., European Neuropsychopharmacology., 2019