Owen Dando

Personal profile

• 2013 - Present: Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Professor Giles Hardingham (Dementia Research Institute) and Professor Peter Kind (Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain), Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh. 
• 2012 - 2013: MSc Bioinformatics, University of Edinburgh.
• 1999 - 2012: Software engineer.
• 1996 - 1999: PhD in Mathematical Physics, University of Durham.
• 1992 - 1996: BA/MMath in Mathematics, University of Cambridge.

Research

In recent years, high-throughput genome sequencing and related technologies have led to a dramatic increase in the quantity of data available to biologists, and require new computational methods to analyse.

My research centres on the application of these techniques to the study of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, the rigorous assessment of the efficacy of such analyses, and the development of new bioinformatics techniques.

Collaborations

• Dr Ian Simpson, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Recent publications

• Asiminas et al; Sustained correction of associative learning deficits after brief, early treatment in a rat model of Fragile X Syndrome. Science Translational Medicine (2019)
• Johnstone et al; Reversal of proliferation deficits caused by chromosome 16p13.11 microduplication through targeting NFκB signaling: an integrated study of patient-derived neuronal precursor cells, cerebral organoids and in vivo brain imaging. Molecular Psychiatry (2018)
• Qiu et al; Mixed-species RNA-seq for elucidation of non-cell-autonomous control of gene transcription. Nature Protocols (2018)
• Selvaraj et al; C9ORF72 repeat expansion causes vulnerability of motor neurons to Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptor-mediated excitotoxicity. Nature Communications (2018)
• Thomson et al; Cell-Type-Specific Translation Profiling Reveals a Novel Strategy for Treating Fragile X Syndrome. Neuron (2017)
• Hasel et al; Neurons and neuronal activity control gene expression in astrocytes to regulate their development and metabolism. Nature Communications (2017)
• Hector et al; Characterisation of Cdkl5 transcript isoforms in rat. Gene (2017)