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Dr. Niamh Ryan
Senior Research Fellow, Psychiatry

Biography

I have added significantly to the field of genomic research, both within psychiatric genomics and the wider genomics community, through valuable contributions to large multi-centre collaborations, my excellent research publication output, and the bioinformatics tools I have developed to improve our ability to study the effect of common and rare, protein-coding and regulatory variants. My work has led to a greater understanding of the types of genetic variants segregating in families and their possible functional roles in susceptibility to psychiatric illness and further underscored the lack of knowledge about the effects of genetic variants and the limitations of some of the sequencing technologies commonly used to fully describe the variation. I have extensive teaching experience and more than ten years PPI and science communication experience, including organising PPI events, scientific conferences and through my role as a member of the Outreach Committee for the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) a global research initiative involving 900+ scientists.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

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 Journal Article, 2025 DOI

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 Journal Article, 2024 DOI

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 Journal Article, 2024 DOI

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 Journal Article, 2024 DOI

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 Journal Article, 2024 DOI

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 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

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 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

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 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

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 Journal Article, 2022 DOI

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] Book Chapter, 2022 DOI

Ormond C, Ryan NM, Corvin A, Heron EA., Converting single nucleotide variants between genome builds: from cautionary tale to solution., Briefings in bioinformatics, 2021 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

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 Conference Paper, 2020 URL DOI

, Altered DNA methylation associated with a translocation linked to major mental illness., NPJ schizophrenia, 2018 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

, Genome-wide haplotype-based association analysis of major depressive disorder in Generation Scotland and UK Biobank., Translational psychiatry, 2017 Journal Article, 2017 DOI

, Identification of a novel locus on chromosome 2q13, which predisposes to clinical vertebral fractures independently of bone density., Annals of the rheumatic diseases, 2017 Journal Article, 2017 DOI

, Balanced translocation linked to psychiatric disorder, glutamate, and cortical structure/function., NPJ schizophrenia, 2016 Journal Article, 2016 DOI

, Preliminary assessment of pre-morbid DNA methylation in individuals at high genetic risk of mood disorders., Bipolar disorders, 2016 Journal Article, 2016 DOI

, SuRFing the genomics wave: an R package for prioritising SNPs by functionality., Genome medicine, 2014 Journal Article, 2014 DOI

Contributions, Margaret Drabble, ed., Oxford Companion to English Literature, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1985, [D. Berman] Item in dictionary or encyclopaedia, etc, 1985 DOI

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 Poster, 2023 DOI

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 Poster, 2023 DOI

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 Poster, 2022 DOI

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 Poster, 2021 DOI

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 Poster, 2021 DOI

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 Poster, 2019 DOI

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 Poster, 2019 DOI

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 Poster, 2019 DOI

Research Expertise

Description

Psychiatric genomics; pedigree studies, whole genome sequencing