David Ashbrook

Baszucki Foundation Chancellor’s Fellow

  • Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
  • Institute for Neuroscience & Cardiovascular Research
  • Edinburgh Neuroscience

Contact details

Biography

Background

I am currently an Baszucki Foundation Chancellor’s Fellow in the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry and Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, and Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics, Genomics and Informatics, at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis.

I graduated in 2011 from the University of Leeds with a BSc in Neuroscience, which included a year spent on industrial placement at AstraZeneca. I completed my PhD in Systems Biology at the University of Manchester's doctoral teaching centre in December 2015, where I had been supervised by Dr Reinmar Hager. I completed my first Postdoctoral Fellowship in the McGowan lab at the University of Toronto Scarborough, where I investigated the epigenetics of Gulf War Illness. I completed my second Postdoctoral Fellowship with Dr. Rob Williams at UTHSC, working on integrating multiple levels of sequencing data and a deep phenome in the BXD recombinant inbred mouse population.

My primary research interest is the brain, and its resultant behavioural phenotypes. I am intrigued by how genetic and cellular changes can be traced through a biological system to result in changes at the whole organism level, such as neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, both of which are becoming an increasing health burden. The ability to produce and share massive datasets is one of the most exciting advancements in modern science because it enables a comprehensive systems approach to fundamental biological questions.

Other aspects of my work include the examination of indirect genetic effects and parent-of-origin effects on early life behaviour and developmental disorders, and the joint-analysis of phenotypes collected across species.

CV

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Qualifications

2011 – 2015, PhD Systems Biology, The University of Manchester, UK

Thesis title: ‘A systems-genetics analysis of complex phenotypes’

Supervisor: Dr. Reinmar Hager

External examiner: Dr. Darren Logan, Internal examiner: Dr. Kathryn Hentges

Developed methods to investigate the genetics and epigenetics underlying complex traits. This involved extensive behavioural analysis of early life interactions in mice.

2007 – 2011, BSc (Hons) Neuroscience (Ind), 2:1, The University of Leeds, UK 

Research project: Protein phosphorylation in Myshkin mice, a Na+,K+ ATPase α3 knockout strain, as a model of bipolar disorder.

Invited speaker

School of Biomedical Sciences Seminar Series, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, 27 March 2025

  • Invited speaker, ‘The effects of genetic background on Alzheimer's related traits in a mouse model’

 

Integrative Physiology Colloquium, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA, 8 April 2024

  • Invited speaker, ‘The importance of genetic background for model organism genetics’

 

Center for In Vivo Microscopy (CIVM) Seminar Series, Duke University, Durham, USA, virtual, 4 March 2022

  • Talk: ‘The importance of genetic background for model organism genetics, using the AD-BXD Alzheimer’s disease model’
  • Invited talk to about our collaboration with Duke, and the background to it

 

UTHSC Center for Cancer Research Symposium, Memphis, USA, 3 December 2021

  • Talk: ‘Including genetic complexity in models of disease’
  • Invited talk to cancer research community on how and why to include genetics in their rodent models

 

Neuroscience 2021, Society for Neuroscience meeting 2021, virtual, 8-11 November 2021

 

 

Organiser

20th Annual Meeting of the Complex Trait Community (CTC) and the Rat Genomics & Models Community, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA, 7-12 October 2023

  • Co-host and organizer
  • Session chair, ‘Machine learning for rodent behavior’

 

Genes, Brain, and Behavior Meeting 2023, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland, 22-25 May 2023

  • Poster: ‘Imaging genetics of brain structure and connectome in murine models of aging’
  • Program committee member

 

Genes, Brain, and Behavior Meeting 2022, Memphis, USA, 23-27 May 2022

  • Symposium: ‘Revolutionary genomics: Third-generation sequencing and pangenome approaches to understanding genes and behavior’
  • Local organizing committee member

 

 

Participant

38th International Mammalian Genome Society Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, 6-9 April 2025

  • Talk: ‘Genetic modulation of neuroanatomy, mitochondrial function, and behaviour in the AD-BXD mouse model of Alzheimer's Disease’

 

21st annual meeting of the Complex Trait Community in collaboration with the Rat Genomics Community, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA, 2-5 October 2024

  • Poster, ‘Mouse Longevity App – an ongoing project to collect and make available mouse lifespan data’

 

The Allied Genetics Conference, Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Metro Washington, DC, USA, 6-10 March 2024

  • PhD student poster, ‘Machine learning for quantification of behavior in rodent models of aging and Alzheimer’s disease’
  • Postdoctoral trainee poster, ‘Mitochondrial phenotypes in BXD models of aging and Alzheimer’s disease’

 

International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) Annual International Conference, The Power of Mouse Genetics: Opportunities for Genomic and Precision Medicine, Keble College, Oxford, UK, 9-11 July 2023

  • Poster: ‘Massive diallel crosses (DAX) as a tool for investigating gene-by-gene-by-environment interactions, genetic background effects, and experimental precision medicine’

 

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Genetics and Epigenetics Meeting 2023, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, USA, 16-17 May 2023

  • Poster: ‘Good wine and old data get better with age: New insights on gene-by-environment effects of drugs of abuse in mice using GeneNetwork.org’

 

19th Annual Meeting of the Complex Trait Community (CTC) and the Rat Genomics & Models Community, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, USA, 29-30 September 2022

  • Talk: ‘A novel pre-clinical model identifies genetic modifiers of triple negative breast cancer risk and progression’

 

 

 

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