Dr Richard Saffery

contact details

  Dr Richard Saffery
  Cancer & Disease Epigenetics
  Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
  Royal Children's Hospital
  Flemington Road
  Parkville Victoria 3052
 
  T +61 3 8341 6341
  E richard.saffery@mcri.edu.au

biography

Richard Saffery trained as a Molecular Biologist at Monash University (Melbourne) before undertaking a postdoctoral position studying human centromeres and associated chromatin modifications at MCRI. In 2006, Richard established a laboratory with the overarching aim of applying a multidisciplinary approach encompassing genetic, environmental and epigenetic analysis to childhood complex disease.

Dr Saffery has published extensively in high ranking journals including Nat Gen, Molecular Cell and PNAS, amongst others, and has received over $6 million in grant funding since 2000 including a prestigious NHMRC Career Development award in 2004, 2 NHMRC Healthy Start to Life and 6 NHMRC project grants. Most recently, Dr Saffery has been appointed as a Work Package leader of a large multinational European Commission (FP7) funded project examining the determinants of metabolic disorders in children.

research focus & interest

The Murdoch Childrens Reserach Institute Cancer, Disease and Developmental Epigenetics Research Group was established in recognition of accumulating knowledge linking epigenetics to early human development and long-term health.

Richards research team comprises two postdoctoral researchers, three research assistants, a senior technical officer and several PhD and Honour students, some of whom have won prestigious awards. We are at the forefront of research into perinatal epigenetics and epigenetics of complex childhood disorders, with exclusive access to several perinatal and childhood cohorts with stored biospecimens and extensive clinical and environmetal data.

In addition, as the research partner of the largest paediatric cancer centre in Australia, based at Royal Children's Hospital, he has access to over 30 years of archived DNA samples and pathology samples collected from children with disease. We have established state-of-the art research pipeline for high throughput DNA methylation analysis at both the genome-scale and gene-specific level. Our philosophy is that understanding complex multifactorial diseases requires multidisciplinary teams and as such we have established networks of researchers with expertise in clinical and molecular research, bioinformatics and biostatistics, epidemiology and cell biology. All of our research is carried out with appropriate parental consent and ethics committee approvals.

publications

R. Saffery, J.B. Carlin, E.J. Joo, M. Ollikainen, B. Novakovic, L. Gordon, R. Andronikos, X. Li, Y.J. Loke, N. Carson, E.M. Wallace, M. Permezel, M.P. Umstad, J. Galati, R. Morley, J.M. Craig, The Peri/postnatal Epigenetic Twins Study (PETS). Int J Epidemiol (2011).

S.L. Prescott, M. Tulic, A. Osei-Kumah, T. Richman, M. Crook, D. Martino, J.A. Dunstan, B. Novakovic, R. Saffery, V.L. Clifton, Reduced placental FOXP3 associated with subsequent infant allergic disease. J Allergy Clin Immunol (2011).

L. Hogan, J.E. Meyer, A. Yang, N.C. Wong, G. Condos, R. Saffery, M. Relling, D. Bhojwani, D. Morrison, W.L. Carr, Integrated Genomic Analysis of Relapsed Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Reveals Therapeutic Strategies. Blood in press (2011).

J.D. Bell, R. Saffery, The value of twins in Epigenetic Epidemiology. Int J Epidemiol accepted Oct (2011).

C.A. Olsson, D.L. Foley, M. Parkinson-Bates, G. Byrnes, M. McKenzie, G.C. Patton, R. Morley, R.J. Anney, J.M. Craig, R. Saffery, Prospects for epigenetic research within cohort studies of psychological disorder: a pilot investigation of a peripheral cell marker of epigenetic risk for depression. Biol Psychol 83 (2010) 159-165.

M. Ollikainen, K.R. Smith, E.J. Joo, H.K. Ng, R. Andronikos, B. Novakovic, N.K. Abdul Aziz, J.B. Carlin, R. Morley, R. Saffery, J.M. Craig, DNA methylation analysis of multiple tissues from newborn twins reveals both genetic and intrauterine components to variation in the human neonatal epigenome. Hum Mol Genet 19 (2010) 4176-4188.

B. Novakovic, N.C. Wong, M. Sibson, H.K. Ng, R. Morley, U. Manuelpillai, T. Down, V.K. Rakyan, S. Beck, S. Hiendleder, C.T. Roberts, J.M. Craig, R. Saffery, DNA methylation-mediated down-regulation of DNA methyltransferase-1 (DNMT1) is coincident with, but not essential for, global hypomethylation in human placenta. J Biol Chem 285 (2010) 9583-9593.

P.S. Bachmann, R.G. Piazza, M.E. Janes, N.C. Wong, C. Davies, A. Mogavero, V.A. Bhadri, B. Szymanska, G. Geninson, V. Magistroni, G. Cazzaniga, A. Biondi, D. Miranda-Saavedra, B. Gottgens, R. Saffery, J.M. Craig, G.M. Marshall, C. Gambacorti-Passerini, J.E. Pimanda, R.B. Lock, Epigenetic silencing of BIM in glucocorticoid poor-responsive pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and its reversal by histone deacetylase inhibition. Blood (2010).
B. Novakovic, M. Sibson, H.K. Ng, U. Manuelpillai, V. Rakyan, T. Down, S. Beck, T. Fournier, D. Evain-Brion, E. Dimitriadis, J.M. Craig, R. Morley, R. Saffery, Placenta-specific methylation of the vitamin D 24-hydroxylase gene: implications for feedback autoregulation of active vitamin D levels at the fetomaternal interface. J Biol Chem 284 (2009) 14838-14848.