Branduff McAllister
Research Associate, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences
- mcallisterw@cardiff.ac.uk
- Hadyn Ellis Building, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ
Biography
Education and qualifications
- PhD in Medicine, Cardiff University (2016-2019)
- Biochemistry BSc (Hons) First-Class Honours, Lancaster University (2013-2016)
Honours and awards
- The Chancellor’s Medal for Exceptional Academic Performance, Lancaster University (2016)
- The Top Student Royal Society of Biology Prize, Lancaster University (2016)
- Alan Wellburn Biochemistry Prize, Lancaster University (2016)
- Academic Excellence in Biochemistry with Cell Biology Prize, Lancaster University (2015)
- Academic Scholarship, Lancaster University (2013)
- Guild of Freemen’s Prize for a Science Project, CLFS (2013)
- M.W. Harris Prize for an Extended Project, CLFS (2013)
- Worshipful Company of Gardeners’ Prize for Biology, CLFS (2013)
- Sixth Form Exhibition Award (Scholarship), CLFS (2011-2013)
Travel grants and bursaries
- Wellcome Trust Advanced Course Bursary (single cell technologies and analysis) (2019)
- Gordon Research Conference Travel Bursary (for oral presentation) (2019)
- ARUK Network Centre Travel Grant (2019)
- Genomics of Brain Disorders Conference Bursary (2018)
- Guarantor's of Brain Travel Grant (2018)
Oral presentations
- CAG Triplet Repeat Disorders, Gordon Research Conference, Lucca, Italy (2019)
- CAG Triplet Repeat Disorders, Gordon Research Seminar, Lucca, Italy (2019)
- Genomics of Brain Disorders Conference, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK (2018)
- Sequencing for Science and Impact. Heath Park Campus, Cardiff University (2017)
Professional memberships
- Member of the European Huntington's Disease Network (EHDN)
- Member of the Royal Society of Biology (MRSB)
- Member of the Deep Dementia Phenotyping (DEMON) Network
Speaking engagements
- Speaker at Cardiff University Huntington's Disease Engagement day (2019)
Publications
2024
- Kim, K. et al. 2024. Post-transcriptional regulation of FAN1 by miR-124-3p at rs3512 underlies onset-delaying genetic modification in Huntington's disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Hong, E. P. et al. 2024. Modification of Huntington's disease by short tandem repeats. Brain Communications 6(2), article number: fcae016. (10.1093/braincomms/fcae016)
2023
- Stöberl, N. et al. 2023. Mutant huntingtin confers cell-autonomous phenotypes on Huntington’s disease iPSC-derived microglia. Scientific Reports 13, article number: 20477. (10.1038/s41598-023-46852-z)
2022
- Lobanov, S. et al. 2022. Huntington’s disease age at motor onset is modified by the tandem hexamer repeat in TCERG1. npj Genomic Medicine 7, article number: 53. (10.1038/s41525-022-00317-w)
- Lee, J. et al. 2022. Genetic modifiers of Huntington disease differentially influence motor and cognitive domains. American Journal of Human Genetics 109(5), pp. 885-899. (10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.03.004)
- McAllister, B. et al. 2022. Exome sequencing of individuals with Huntington’s disease implicates FAN1 nuclease activity in slowing CAG expansion and disease onset. Nature Neuroscience 25, pp. 446-457. (10.1038/s41593-022-01033-5)
2021
- McAllister, B. et al. 2021. Timing and impact of psychiatric, cognitive, and motor abnormalities in Huntington disease. Neurology 96(19), pp. e2395-e2406. (10.1212/WNL.0000000000011893)
- Hong, E. P. et al. 2021. Association analysis of chromosome X to identify genetic modifiers of Huntington's disease. Journal of Huntington's Disease 10(3), pp. 367-375. (10.3233/JHD-210485)
2020
- Ellis, N. et al. 2020. Genetic risk underlying psychiatric and cognitive symptoms in Huntington’s Disease. Biological Psychiatry 87(9), pp. 857-865. (10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.12.010)
- McAllister, B. et al. 2020. The onset and prevalence of motor and psychiatric symptoms in Huntington’s disease. [Online]. bioRxiv. (10.1101/2020.05.26.116798)
2019
- McAllister, W. B. 2019. Identification and characterisation of genetic variation that modifies age at onset in Huntington’s disease. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
- Lee, J. et al. 2019. CAG repeat not polyglutamine length determines timing of Huntington’s disease onset. Cell 178(4), pp. 887-099.e14. (10.1016/j.cell.2019.06.036)
2018
- Massey, T., McAllister, B. and Jones, L. 2018. Methods for assessing DNA repair and repeat expansion in Huntington's Disease. In: Precious, S. V., Rosser, A. E. and Dunnett, S. B. eds. Huntington’s Disease., Vol. 1780. Methods in Molecular Biology Humana Press, pp. 483-495., (10.1007/978-1-4939-7825-0_22)
Teaching
Teaching overview
I am involved in the teaching of several master's level modules in bioinformatics and genetics, including 'Computing for Bioinformatics and Genetic Epidemiology' and 'Post-GWAS Genetic Epidemiology'. I additionally supervise undergraduate and postgraduate project students.
Current grant support
- B McAllister, ... P Holmans, L Jones
Using single-cell sequencing to investigate the cellular pathogenesis of Huntington's disease
2019-2020 £4,800 (ARUK Network Centre Grant)
Previous grant support
- B McAllister, T Massey, L Jones, D Monckton
Somatic expansion of the CAG repeat in blood from HD subjects
2017-2018 £5,000 (ARUK Network Centre Grant) - Student: B McAllister
Supervisors: L Jones, T Massey, P Holmans, N Williams
Identification and characterisation of genetic variation that modifies age at onset in Huntington's disease
2016-2019 (Cardiff University School of Medicine PhD Studentship)
Supervision
Current projects
- Co-supervisor (50%) for Connor Madden, for MET584 - "Characterising the genetics of repeat expansions in Huntington’s Disease".
Past projects
- Co-supervisor (50%) for Christopher Wills (MSc, 2019) - "Genetic Variance Influencing Anticipation in Huntington's Disease".