Dr Ruth Pidsley
Biography
Ruth is an NHMRC Investigator Fellow, Group Leader of the DNA Methylation Biomarkers group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Conjoint Lecturer at St Vincent's Clinical School, UNSW Sydney. She graduated with a degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University, before studying for an MSc/PhD at King's College London, investigating epigenetics in the human brain and neuropsychiatric disorders. In 2013 she transitioned to cancer research, joining Prof Susan Clark’s Epigenetics Research lab at the Garvan Institute, and established her own research group in 2018.
The research in Ruth's group focuses primarily on the role of epigenetics in the prostate tumour microenvironment. Their goal is to use this epigenetic information to improve cancer diagnosis and prognosis, so that patients can receive the correct treatment.
Since starting her scientific career in 2007, Ruth has published more than 35 papers, she has co-supervised the research projects of MSc and undergraduate students, as well as lecturing on two MSc courses. She has been awarded competitive funding for research projects from CINSW, CCNSW and NHMRC. She has contributed to further improving the research environment through serving on the Garvan Post Doctoral Development and Engagement Committees and the NSW Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) Committee. Ruth also engages with patient consumers to guide her research and shares her research outcomes with the general public through Institute organised events.
Ruth is an NHMRC Investigator Fellow, Group Leader of the DNA Methylation Biomarkers group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Conjoint Lecturer at St Vincent's Clinical School, UNSW Sydney. She graduated with a degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University, before studying for an MSc/PhD at King's College London, investigating epigenetics in the human brain and neuropsychiatric disorders. In 2013 she transitioned to cancer research, joining Prof Susan Clark’s Epigenetics Research lab at the Garvan Institute, and established her own research group in 2018.
The research in Ruth's group focuses primarily on the role of epigenetics in the prostate tumour microenvironment. Their goal is to use this epigenetic information to improve cancer diagnosis and prognosis, so that patients can receive the correct treatment.
Since starting her scientific career in 2007, Ruth has published more than 35 papers, she has co-supervised the research projects of MSc and undergraduate students, as well as lecturing on two MSc courses. She has been awarded competitive funding for research projects from CINSW, CCNSW and NHMRC. She has contributed to further improving the research environment through serving on the Garvan Post Doctoral Development and Engagement Committees and the NSW Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) Committee. Ruth also engages with patient consumers to guide her research and shares her research outcomes with the general public through Institute organised events.
Awards and Honours
2013 - Gottesman-Shields Award for best PhD at the MRC SGDP Department, King’s College London, UK
2012 - Tadion Rideal Prize for best PhD across the biomedical sciences at King’s College London, UK
2008 - MRC Studentship for MSc/PhD course at the MRC SGDP Department, King’s College London, UK
Multiple travel awards and prizes for presentations at local and international conferences
Education
2009 - MSc, Molecular Genetics, King’s College London - UK
2006 - BA, Human Sciences, University of Oxford - UK
Selected Publications
Lam D*, Luu PL*, Song J, Qu W, Risbridger G, Lawrence M, Lu J, Trau M, Korbie D, Clark S, Pidsley R*, Stirzaker C*. (2020) Comprehensive Evaluation of Targeted Multiplex Bisulphite PCR sequencing for validation of DNA methylation biomarker panels. Clinical Epigenetics 12:90 doi:10.1186/s13148-020-00880-y
Lawrence M*, Pidsley R*, Niranjan B, Papargiris M, Pereira B, Richards M, Teng L, Norden S, Ryan A, Frydenberg M, Stirzaker C, Taylor R, Risbridger G*, Clark S*. (2020) Alterations in the methylome of the stromal tumour microenvironment signal the presence and severity of prostate cancer. Clinical Epigenetics 12:48 doi:10.1186/s13148-020-00836-2
Pidsley R, Stirzaker C. (2019) Cancer Methylation Biomarkers in circulating cell-free DNA. Invited book chapter in Clinical Epigenetics (pg. 217-245) published by Springer Nature.
Skvortsova K, Masle-Farquhar E, Luu P, Song J, Qu W, Zotenko E, Gould C, Du Q, Peters T, Colino Sanguino Y, Pidsley R, Nair S, Khoury A, Smith G, Miosge L, Reed J, Kench J, Rubin M, Horvath L, Bogdanovic O, Mei Lim S, Polo J, Goodnow C, Stirzaker C*, Clark S*. (2019) DNA hypermethylation encroachment at CpG island borders in cancer is predisposed by H3K4 monomethylation patterns. Cancer Cell 35(2):297-314.e8. doi:10.1016/j.ccell.2019.01.004
Peters T, French H, Bradford S, Pidsley R, Stirzaker C, Varinli H, Nair S, Qu W, Song J, Giles K, Statham A, Spiers H, Speed T, Clark S. (2018) Evaluation of cross-platform and interlaboratory concordance via consensus modeling of genomic measurements in genomic studies. Bioinformatics 35(4):560-570 doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/bty675
Pidsley R*, Lawrence M*, Zotenko E, Niranjan B, Statham A, Song J, Chabanon R, Qu W, Wang H, Richards M, Nair S, Armstrong N, Nim H, Papargiris M, Balanathan P, French H, Peters T, Norden S, Ryan A, Pedersen J, Kench J, Daly R, Horvath L, Stricker P, Frydenberg M, Taylor R, Stirzaker C, Risbridger G*, Clark S*. (2018) Enduring Epigenetic Landmarks Define the Cancer Microenvironment. Genome Research 28(5):625-638 doi:10.1101/gr.229070.117 Cover of Journal
Pidsley R*, Zotenko E*, Peters T, Lawrence M, Risbridger G, Molloy P, van Djik S, Muhlhausler B, Stirzaker C*, Clark S*. (2016) Critical evaluation of the Illumina MethylationEPIC BeadChip microarray for whole-genome DNA methylation profiling. Genome Biology 17:208 doi: 10.1186/s13059-016-1066-1
Stirzaker C, Song J, Ng W, Du Q, Armstrong N, Locke W, Statham A, French H, Pidsley R, Valdes-Mora F, Zotenko E, Clark S. (2016) Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein MBD2 plays a key role in maintenance and spread of DNA methylation of CpG islands and shores in cancer. Oncogene 10.1038/onc.2016.297
Hannon E, Spiers H, Viana J, Pidsley R, Burrage J, Murphy T, Troakes C, Turecki G, O’Donovan M, Schalkwyk L, Bray N, Mill J. (2016) Methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) in the developing human brain and their enrichment in genomic regions associated with schizophrenia. Nature Neuroscience 19:1:48-54 doi: 10.1038/nn.4182
Stone A, Zotenko E, Locke W, Korbie D, Millar E, Pidsley R, Stirzaker C, Graham P, Trau M, Musgrove E, Nicholson R, Gee J, Clark S. (2015) DNA methylation of oestrogen-regulated enhancers defines endocrine sensitivity in breast cancer. Nature Communications 6:7758 doi:10.1038/ncomms875,8
Peters T, Buckley M, Statham A, Pidsley R, Samaras K, Lord R, Clark S, Molloy P. (2015) De novo identification of differentially methylated regions in the human genome. Epigenetics & Chromatin 8 (1), 6 doi:10.1186/1756-8935-8-6
Pidsley R, Viana J, Hannon E, Spiers H, Troakes C, Al-Saraj S, Mechawar N, Turecki G, Schalkwyk L, Bray N and Mill J. (2014) Methylomic profiling of human brain tissue supports a neurodevelopmental origin for schizophrenia. Genome Biology 15 (10), 483 doi:10.1186/s13059-014-0483-2
Pidsley R*, Wong CCY *, Volta M, Lunnon K, Mill J, Schalkwyk L. (2013) A data-driven approach to preprocessing Illumina 450k methylation array data. BMC Genomics 14(1):293 doi:10.1186/1471-2164-14-293
Dempster EL*, Pidsley R*, Schalkwyk LC, Owens S, Georgiades A, Kane F, Kalidindi S, Picchioni M, Kravariti E, Toulopoulou T, Murray RM, Mill J. (2011) Disease-associated epigenetic changes in monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Human Molecular Genetics 20(24):4786-4796. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddr416
