I am Professor of Neurogenetics and Genomics at the School of Medicine of the University of St Andrews. I graduated in Biological Sciences (cum laude) at the University of Pavia and obtained a DPhil in Human Genetics at the University of Oxford. My project, supervised by Dr Chris Tyler-Smith and Prof. Ed Southern involved the development of genotyping methods and screening of large cohorts for genetic associations with prostate cancer and male infertility. I conducted my post-doctoral training in Prof. Anthony Monaco’s group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford University. In 2011 I was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to set up my group at St Andrews. In 2013, I became member of the Young Academy of Scotland. In 2018 I was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB) and in 2019 I became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). I am the founding co-Director of the MSc in Health Data Science and the founding co-Chair of the Specific Learning Difficulties Network (SLDN).

I studied BSc Biological Sciences (Forensic Biology) with Foundation at University of Westminster and MSc Forensic Medical Sciences at Queen Mary University of London. As part of my MSc project I worked on GWAS data which led me to take a Data Science Immersive course at General Assembly London. After completing this course I was offered a position as a teaching assistant on various data and coding related courses, where I worked for a couple of years, and finally secured a position as a Data Scientist at Virgin Atlantic Airways. The aim of my PhD project is to use artificial intelligence to interpret genomic data. My PhD project is funded by Medical Research Scotland  in collaboration with Medical Research Scotland and Canon Medical Research Europe.

I completed my BSc in Chemistry, Zoology, and Biotechnology at St. Joseph’s College in Bangalore, followed by an MSc in Bioinformatics and Biotechnology at the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology. For my MSc thesis, I delved into the identification of potential biomarkers in the 3′ UTR region of DNA Damage Response genes in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Subsequently, I gained valuable experience as an Associate Bioinformatics Engineer at Strand Life Sciences. Presently, I am the recipient of the Global PhD scholarship, jointly awarded by the University of St. Andrews and the University of Bonn, to support my research endeavors in unraveling the intricate relationship between childhood neurodevelopmental conditions and psychiatric disorders.

I graduated in bioinformatics at the Argricultural University of Hebei. Then I shifted my focus to the industry. From 2016 to 2023, I have worked at Novogene, GrandOmics and Xtalpi in a various capacities, ranging from a bioinformatic engineer to a department manager. During my tenure at the first two companies, I was immersed in a multitude of research and clinical projects, honing my expertise in multi-omics data analysis, including transcriptomics, genomics, and epigenomics. My time in xtalpi gives me the opptunity to learn and apply Artificial Intellegence to cell omics and cell image data. These diverse experiences have equipped me with a rich skill set that I can harness for my Ph.D. project, funded by Tenovus Scotland. This project primarily resolves around delving into uk biobank public database and digging out gene mutations associated with cardiovascular diseases and then performing functional assays to verify promising mutations.

I graduated from my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at the University of St Andrews in 2023. I continued onto a masters degree in Health Data Science, again at the University of St Andrews, and received external funding and support from the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) scholarship. During this masters programme I applied for and was awarded the first Health Data Science PhD studentship, jointly from the School of Medicine and the School of Computer Science. This has allowed me the opportunity to pursue an interdisciplinary research project focusing on genetic risk variants in neurodevelopmental conditions in the Neurogenetics group.

Through writing my undergraduate dissertation surrounding the topic of cerebral phylogenetics, I not only solidified my interests of integrating the use of statistics within a biological context, but also reflected upon how the advancement of my coding abilities has the potential to result in real-world impact. This led me to the MSc Health Data Science course, which has taught me an excellent mixture of computer science, mathematics, and biomedical science, where I have also been a recipient of the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) scholarship. From expanding my skills in genetic analysis, I am excited to join the Neurogenetics Research Group, to work on exome sequencing data. 

​Gillian Stirton is Research Coordinator for the Specific Learning Difficulties Network (SLDN), working part time and typically be in the office on Thursdays and Fridays. Gillian’s professional background is in communications, project management and publishing. Prior to joining the University, she spent nine years at agri-environmental research organisation the James Hutton Institute, near Dundee, ultimately as Head of Communications from 2017, leading the team promoting the Institute’s work and building its public profile.