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About

Our lab uses statistical methodology to describe and model genetic data, by identifying and making use of structure within the data. This pinpoints genomic regions that may harbor disease-causing mutations, as well as provide insight into disease pathogenesis. We implement these models through software development and bespoke data analyses, primarily in the R programming language.

We work on many disease identification projects concurrently, some of which can be readily solved with existing methods and analytic pipelines. Others may prove more challenging, potentially taking years of development and analysis before a breakthrough is achieved. We seek to identify when and where new technologies can be implemented to achieve breakthroughs in studies that have remained unsolved thus far.

Publications

Selected publications from Prof Melanie Bahlo AM

Hildebrand MS, Braden RO, Lauretta ML, Kaspi A, Leventer RJ, Anderson M, Goel H, Bahlo M, Scheffer IE, Amor DJ, Janowski R, Niessing D, Morgan AT. Inherited PURA Pathogenic Variant Associated With a Mild Neurodevelopmental Disorder. Neurology Genetics. 2024;10(5):10.1212/nxg.0000000000200181

Farashi S, Bonelli R, Jackson VE, Ansell BRE, Guymer RH, Bahlo M. Decreased Circulating Very Small Low-Density Lipoprotein is Likely Causal for Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Ophthalmology Science. 2024;4(5):10.1016/j.xops.2024.100535

Banks E, Francis V, Lin S-J, Kharfallah F, Fonov V, Lévesque M, Han C, Kulasekaran G, Tuznik M, Bayati A, Al-Khater R, Alkuraya FS, Argyriou L, Babaei M, Bahlo M, Bakhshoodeh B, Barr E, Bartik L, Bassiony M, Bertrand M, Braun D, Buchert R, Budetta M, Cadieux-Dion M, Calame DG, Cope H, Cushing D, Efthymiou S, Elmaksoud MA, El Said HG, Froukh T, Gill HK, Gleeson JG, Gogoll L, Goh ES-Y, Gowda VK, Haack TB, Hashem MO, Hauser S, Hoffman TL, Hogue JS, Hosokawa A, Houlden H, Huang K, Huynh S, Karimiani EG, Kaulfuß S, Korenke GC, Kritzer A, Lee H, Lupski JR, Marco EJ, McWalter K, Minassian A, Minassian BA, Murphy D, Neira-Fresneda J, Northrup H, Nyaga DM, Oehl-Jaschkowitz B, Osmond M, Person R, Pehlivan D, Petree C, Sadleir LG, Saunders C, Schoels L, Shashi V, Spillmann RC, Srinivasan VM, Torbati PN, Tos T, Zaki MS, Zhou D, Zweier C, Trempe J-F, Durcan TM, Gan-Or Z, Avoli M, Alves C, Varshney GK, Maroofian R, Rudko DA, McPherson PS. Loss of symmetric cell division of apical neural progenitors drives DENND5A-related developmental and epileptic encephalopathy. Nature Communications. 2024;15(1):10.1038/s41467-024-51310-z

Ellis CA, Oliver KL, Harris RV, Ottman R, Scheffer IE, Mefford HC, Epstein MP, Berkovic SF, Bahlo M. Inflation of polygenic risk scores caused by sample overlap and relatedness: Examples of a major risk of bias. American Journal of Human Genetics. 2024;:10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.07.014

Wallis M, Bodek SD, Munro J, Rafehi H, Bennett MF, Ye Z, Schneider A, Gardiner F, Valente G, Murdoch E, Uebergang E, Hunter J, Stutterd C, Huq A, Salmon L, Scheffer I, Eratne D, Meyn S, Fong CY, John T, Mullen S, White SM, Brown NJ, McGillivray G, Chen J, Richmond C, Hughes A, Krzesinski E, Fennell A, Chambers B, Santoreneos R, Le Fevre A, Hildebrand MS, Bahlo M, Christodoulou J, Delatycki M, Berkovic SF. Experience of the first adult-focussed undiagnosed disease program in Australia (AHA-UDP): solving rare and puzzling genetic disorders is ageless. Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases. 2024;19(1):10.1186/s13023-024-03297-5

Cortese A, Beecroft SJ, Facchini S, Curro R, Cabrera-Serrano M, Stevanovski I, Chintalaphani SR, Gamaarachchi H, Weisburd B, Folland C, Monahan G, Scriba CK, Dofash L, Johari M, Grosz BR, Ellis M, Fearnley LG, Tankard R, Read J, Merve A, Dominik N, Vegezzi E, Schnekenberg RP, Fernandez-Eulate G, Masingue M, Giovannini D, Delatycki MB, Storey E, Gardner M, Amor DJ, Nicholson G, Vucic S, Henderson RD, Robertson T, Dyke J, Fabian V, Mastaglia F, Davis MR, Kennerson M, Quinlivan R, Hammans S, Tucci A, Bahlo M, McLean CA, Laing NG, Stojkovic T, Houlden H, Hanna MG, Deveson IW, Lockhart PJ, Lamont PJ, Fahey MC, Bugiardini E, Ravenscroft G. A CCG expansion in ABCD3 causes oculopharyngodistal myopathy in individuals of European ancestry. Nature Communications. 2024;15(1):10.1038/s41467-024-49950-2

Henden L, Fearnley LG, Southwood D, Smith A, Rowe DB, Kiernan MC, Pamphlett R, Bahlo M, Blair IP, Williams KL. Short tandem repeat expansions in LRP12 are absent in cohorts of familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients of European ancestry. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration. 2024;25(5-6):10.1080/21678421.2024.2348636

Marchant RG, Bryen SJ, Bahlo M, Cairns A, Chao KR, Corbett A, Davis MR, Ganesh VS, Ghaoui R, Jones KJ, Kornberg AJ, Lek M, Liang C, MacArthur DG, Oates EC, O’Donnell‐Luria A, O’Grady GL, Osei‐Owusu IA, Rafehi H, Reddel SW, Roxburgh RH, Ryan MM, Sandaradura SA, Scott LW, Valkanas E, Weisburd B, Young H, Evesson FJ, Waddell LB, Cooper ST. Genome and RNA sequencing boost neuromuscular diagnoses to 62% from 34% with exome sequencing alone. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. 2024;11(5):10.1002/acn3.52041

Nyaga DM, Hildebrand MS, de Valles‐Ibáñez G, Keenan NF, Ye Z, LaFlamme CW, Mefford HC, Bennett MF, Bahlo M, Sadleir LG. Leveraging multiple approaches for the detection of pathogenic deep intronic variants in developmental and epileptic encephalopathies: A case report. Epilepsia Open. 2024;9(2):10.1002/epi4.12887

Braat S, Fielding KL, Han J, Jackson VE, Zaloumis S, Xu JXH, Moir-Meyer G, Blaauwendraad SM, Jaddoe VWV, Gaillard R, Parkin PC, Borkhoff CM, Keown-Stoneman CDG, Birken CS, Maguire JL, Team GHR, Bahlo M, Davidson EM, Pasricha S-R. Haemoglobin thresholds to define anaemia from age 6 months to 65 years: estimates from international data sources. The Lancet Haematology. 2024;11(4):10.1016/s2352-3026(24)00030-9

Lab research projects

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