Professor Joanne Ryan heads the Biological Neuropsychiatry and Dementia research unit in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM).

Joanne initially trained as a molecular biologist, completing a University of Melbourne Science degree with honours in the Department of Biochemistry. She then obtained a Masters of Biostatistics through the Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia, at Monash University. She completed in 2011 a PhD in neuropsychiatric epidemiology with the University of Melbourne and Université Montpellier 1, France. Having been awarded an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship in Public Health, she completed an initial post-doc at INSERM (in France) and then returned to Melbourne to develop skills and expertise in epigenetic epidemiology at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. In 2017 she was awarded an NHMRC Dementia Research Leadership fellowship, and in 2022 an NHMRC Investigator Grant (Leadership Level 1). She is co-Principal Investigator on the ASPREE-XT study of ageing, and CIA of the STAREE-Mind Clinical Trial substudy, investigating the effects of statins on cognitive ageing and brain health. She co-leads an International Consortium on interventions to promote health aging.

Joanne's research in neuropsychiatric disorders is focused on preventative interventions and risk prediction, and understanding the biological underpinnings of these disorders, as well as biomarker identification (including epigenetics). Her research on healthy aging is focused on identifying interventions which can prolong the period of life spent in good health, and the interplay between healthspan and biological aging. Her long-term vision is to reduce the prevalence and burden of neuropsychiatric disorders across the life-course, and identify strategies to optimise cognitive and physical health with aging.

Dementia; Cognitive Aging; Frailty; Intrinsic Capacity; Healthspan; Epigenetics; Biological Aging; Stress/Trauma

https://www.monash.edu/medicine/sphpm/units/biological-neuropsychiatry-and-dementia

Honours Coordinator, Bachelor of Biomedical Science, SPHPM 

BMS4200 - Biostatistics for Honours Students (Unit Coordinator)

BMS3052 - Biomedical Basis & Epidemiology of Human Disease