W. David Hill
MRC Research Fellow
![](https://www.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/uoe_profile_picture/public/wdh_staff.jpg?itok=NfZtFZW6)
- Psychology
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Contact details
- Tel: 0131 6 508 312
- Email: David.Hill@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Room F1, Psychology Building
- City
- 7 George Square, Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9JZ
Qualifications
Ph.D. Thesis title "The application of gene-set analysis to identify the molecular genetic correlates of human cognitive abilities" The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
M.Sc. Neuroimaging, Bangor University, Wales, UK
B.Sc. Psychology, Bangor University, Wales, UK
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Research summary
I am an MRC research fellow, and I am based in the Lothian Birth Cohort Studies group. I am the PI for the five year MRC funded project “From genetic sequence to phenotypic consequence: genetic and environmental links between cognitive ability, socioeconomic position, and health”. My research is focussed on identifying genetic and environmental variation linked to cognitive ability and socioeconomic position, and what this means for our health. My previous works include the publication of the first well powered genetic study examining intelligence, as well as examining the genetic differences associated with income.
In the press
The Herald Scotland, 13th March 2018. Breakthrough in search for genes behind intelligence
New Scientist, 12th March 2018. Over 500 genes associated with intelligence identified.
New Scientist, 20th June 2017. Genetic links between intelligence and health.
The Times, 13th November 2016. Genetic links with socioeconomic status found.
Data available for
Hill, W.D., Hagenaars, S.P., Marioni, R.E., Harris, S.E., Liewald, D.C., Davies, G., International Consortium for Blood Pressure., McIntosh, A.M., Gale, C.R., & Deary, I.J. (2016). Molecular genetic contributions to social deprivation and household income in UK Biobank. Current Biology, 26(22), 3083-3089.
Hill, W. D., Weiss, A., Liewald, D. C., Davies, G., Porteous, D. J., Hayward, C., …& Deary, I. J. (2019). Genetic contributions to two special factors of neuroticism are associated with affluence, higher intelligence, better health, and longer life. Molecular Psychiatry.
Anderson, E. L., Howe, L. D., Wade, K. H., Ben-Shlomo, Y., Hill, W. D., Deary, I. J., … & Hemani, G. (2020). Education, intelligence and Alzheimer's disease: Evidence from a multivariable two-sample Mendelian randomization study. International Journal of Epidemiology.
Hill, W. D., Davies, N, M., Ritchie, S. J., Skene, N. G., Bryois, J., Bell, S., … & Deary, I. J. (2019). Genome-wide analysis identifies molecular systems and 149 genetic loci associated with income. Nature Communications. 10, 5741
Adams, M. J., Howard, D. M., Luciano, M., Clarke, T. K., Davies, G., Hill, W. D., … & McIntosh, A. M. (2019). Genetic stratification of depression by neuroticism: revisiting a diagnostic tradition. Psychological Medicine. 1-10.
Hill, W. D., Harris, S. E., Deary, I. J. (2019). What genome-wide association studies reveal about the association between intelligence and mental health. Current Opinion in Psychology. 27, 25-30.
Deary, I. J., Harris, S. E., Hill, W. D. (2019). What genome-wide association studies reveal about the association between intelligence and physical health, illness, and mortality. Current Opinion in Psychology. 27, 6-12.
Davies, N.M., Hill, W.D., Anderson, E.L., Sanderson, E., Deary, I.J., & Smith, GD. (2019). Multivariable two-sample Mendelian randomization estimates of the effects of intelligence and education on health. eLIFE.
Adams, M .J., Hill, W.D., Howard, D. M., Dashti, H. S., Davis, K. A. S., Campbell, A., … & McIntosh, A. M. (2019). Factors associated with sharing e-mail information and mental health survey participation in large population cohorts. International Journal of Epidemiology. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyz134.
Hill, W. D., Weiss, A., Liewald, D. C., Davies, G., Porteous, D. J., Hayward, C., …& Deary, I. J. (2019). Genetic contributions to two special factors of neuroticism are associated with affluence, higher intelligence, better health, and longer life. Molecular Psychiatry. doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0387-3.
Grotzinger, A. D., Rhemtulla, M., de Vlaming, R., Ritchie, S. J., Mallard, T. T., Hill, W. D., … & Tucker-Drob. (2019). Genomic SEM Provides Insights into the Multivariate Genetic Architecture of Complex Traits. Nature Human Behaviour. 3(5), 513-525.
Luciano, M., Davies, G., Summers, K., Hill W.D., Hayward, C., Liewald, D., Porteous, D., …, & Deary, I. J. (2019). The influence of X chromosome variants on trait neuroticism. Molecular Psychiatry. doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0388-2.
Ritchie, S.J., Hill, W.D., Marioni, R. E., Davies, G., Hagenaars, S. P., Harris, S.E., & Deary, I.J. (2019). Polygenic predictors of age-related decline in cognitive ability. Molecular Psychiatry, doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0372-x
Kraja, A. T., Liu, C., Fetterman, J. L., Graff, M., Have, C. T., Gu, C., 6 authors, Hill, W. D., …, & North, K. E. (2019). Associations of Mitochondrial and Nuclear Mitochondrial Variants and Genes with Seven Metabolic Traits. American Journal of Human Genetics. 104(1) 112-138.
Lam, M., Hill, W. D., Trampush, J. W., Yu, J., Knowles, E., Davies, G., …, & Lencz, T. (2019). Pleiotropic Meta-Analysis of Cognition, Education, and Schizophrenia Differentiates Roles of Early Neurodevelopmental and Adult Synaptic Pathways. American Journal of Human Genetics.
Ward-Caviness, C. K., Huffman, J.E., Everett, K., Germain, M., van Dongen, J., Hill, W. D., …, & Peters, A. (2018). DNA methylation age is associated with an altered hemostatic profile in a multiethnic meta-analysis. Blood. 132(17), 1842-1850.
Hill, W. D. (2018). A Further Comment on ‘Large-Scale Cognitive GWAS Meta-Analysis Reveals Tissue-Specific Neural Expression and Potential Nootropic Drug Targets’ by Lam et al. Twin Research and Human Genetics, doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2018.55.
Srinivasan, S., Bettella, F., Frei, O., Hill, W. D., Wang, Y., Witoelar, A., … & Andreassen, O. A. (2018). Enrichment of genetic markers of recent human evolution in educational and cognitive traits. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 12585.
Davies, G., Lam, M., Harris, S. E., Trampush, J. W., Luciano, M., Hill, W. D., … Deary I. J. (2018). Study of 300,486 individuals identifies 148 independent genetic loci influencing general cognitive function. Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04362-x.
Hill, W. D. (2018). Comment on ‘Large-Scale Cognitive GWAS Meta-Analysis Reveals Tissue-Specific Neural Expression and Potential Nootropic Drug Targets’ by Lam et al. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 21(2), 84-88.
Hill, W. D., Marioni, R, Maghzian, O., Ritchie, S., Hagenaars, S., Mcintosh, A. M., Davies, G., Gale, C. R., & Deary I. J. (2018). A combined analysis of genetically correlated traits identifies 187 loci and a role for neurogenesis and myelination in intelligence. Molecular Psychiatry. doi:10.1038/s41380-017-0001-5
Hill, W. D., Arslan, R. C., Xia, C., Luciano, M., Amador, C., Navarro, P., Hayward, C., Nagy, N., Porteous, D., McIntosh, A.M., Deary, I. J., Haley, C.S., & Penke, L. (2018). Genomic analysis of family data reveals additional genetic effects on intelligence and personality. Molecular Psychiatry. doi:10.1038/s41380-017-0005-1.
Luciano, M., Hagenaars, S. P., Davies, G., Hill, W. D., Clarke, T. K., Shirali, M., ... & Deary I. J. (2018). Association analysis in over 329,000 individuals identifies 116 independent variants influencing neuroticism. Nature genetics, 50(1), 6.
Fernández, E., Collins, M. O., Frank, R. A., Zhu, F., Kopanitsa, M. V., Nithianantharajah, J., 7 authors, Hill, W.D., ... & Grant, S.G.N. (2017). Arc Requires PSD95 for Assembly into Postsynaptic Complexes Involved with Neural Dysfunction and Intelligence. Cell reports, 21(3), 679-691.
Smeland, O. B., Frei, O., Kauppi, K., Hill, W. D., Li, W., Wang, Y., ... & Andreassen, O. A. (2017). Identification of genetic loci jointly influencing schizophrenia risk and the cognitive traits of verbal-numerical reasoning, reaction time, and general cognitive function. JAMA psychiatry, 74(10), 1065-1075.
Luciano, M., Hagenaars, S. P., Cox, S. R., Hill, W. D., Davies, G., Harris, S. E., ... & Bates, T. C. (2017). Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Associated with Reading Ability Show Connection to Socio-Economic Outcomes. Behavior Genetics, 47(5), 469-479.
Hagenaars, S. P., Hill, W.D., Harris, S.E., Ritchie, S.J., Davies, G., Liewald, D.C., Gale, C. R., Porteous, D.J., Deary, I.J., Marrioni, R.E. (2017). Genetic prediction of male pattern baldness. PLoS Genetics, 13(2), e1006594.
Hagenaars, S. P., Cox, S. R., Hill, W. D., Davies, G., Liewald, D. C., Harris, S. E., ... & CHARGE consortium Cognitive Working Group. (2017). Genetic contributions to trail making test performance in UK Biobank. Molecular psychiatry. doi:10.1038/mp.2017.189.
Deary, V., Hagenaars, S. P., Harris, S. E., Hill, W. D., Davies, G., Liewald, D. C., ... & Deary, I.J. (2017). Genetic contributions to self-reported tiredness. Molecular psychiatry, 23(3), 609.
Hill, W.D., Davies, G., Harris, S.E., Hagenaars, S.P., Liewald, D., Penke, L. Gale. C.R. & Deary, I.J. (2016). Molecular genetic aetiology of general cognitive function is enriched in evolutionarily conserved regions. Translational Psychiatry, 6(12), e980.
Hill, W.D., Hagenaars, S.P., Marioni, R.E., Harris, S.E., Liewald, D.C., Davies, G., International Consortium for Blood Pressure., McIntosh, A.M., Gale, C.R., & Deary, I.J. (2016). Molecular genetic contributions to social deprivation and household income in UK Biobank. Current Biology, 26(22), 3083-3089.
Hill, W.D. (2016). FAQ for ‘Molecular genetic contributions to social deprivation and household income in UK Biobank’ by Hill et al. CCACE.
Hill, W.D., Davies, G., Liewald, D.C., Payton, A., McNeil, C.J., Whalley, L.J., Horan, M., Ollier, W. Starr, J.M. Pendleton., N. Hansell, N.K. Montgomery., G.W. Medland, S.E., Martin, N.G., Wright, M.J., Bates, T.C., & Deary, I.J. (2016). Examining non-syndromic autosomal recessive intellectual disability (NS-ARID) genes for an enriched association with intelligence differences. Intelligence, 54, 80-89.
Marioni, R. E., Ritchie, S. J., Joshi, P. K., Hagenaars, S. P., Okbay, A., Fischer, K., Adams, M. J., Hill, W. D., ... & Deary, I.J. (2016). Genetic variants linked to education predict longevity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(47), 13366-13371.
Bakshi, A., Zhu, Z., Vinkhuyzen, A.A., Hill, W.D., McRae, A.F., Visscher, P.M., & Yang, J. (2016). Fast set-based association analysis using summary data from GWAS identifies novel gene loci for human complex traits. Scientific Reports, 6, 32894.
Harris, S. E., Hagenaars, S. P., Davies, G., Hill, W.D., Liewald, D. C., Ritchie, S. J., ... & Deary, I.J. (2016). Molecular genetic contributions to self-rated health. International journal of epidemiology, 46(3), 994-1009.
Eicher, J.D., 15 authors, Hill, W.D., & 95 authors, & Johnson, A.D. (2016). Platelet-Related Variants Identified by Exomechip Meta-analysis in 157,293 Individuals. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 99(1), 40-55.
Chami, N., 18 authors, Hill, W.D., & 92 authors, Lettre, G. (2016). Exome Genotyping Identifies Pleiotropic Variants Associated with Red Blood Cell Traits. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 99(1), 8-21.
Tajuddin, S. M., 5 authors, Hill, W.D., & 89 authors, & Auer, P.L. (2016). Large-Scale Exome-wide Association Analysis Identifies Loci for White Blood Cell Traits and Pleiotropy with Immune-Mediated Diseases. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 99(1), 22-39.
Davies, G., Marioni, Liewald, D.C., Hill, W.D., Hagenaars, S.P., Harris, S.E., … Deary, I.J. (2016). Genome-wide association study of cognitive functions and educational attainment in UK Biobank (N=112 151). Molecular Psychiatry, (21), 758-767.
Hagenaars, S. P., Harris, S. E., Davies, G., Hill, W.D., 19 authors, & Deary, I.J. (2016). Shared genetic aetiology between cognitive functions and physical and mental health in UK Biobank (N=112 151) and 24 GWAS consortia. Molecular Psychiatry, 21(11), 1624.
Gale, C. R., Hagenaars, S. P., Davies, G., Hill, W. D., Liewald, D. C., Cullen, B., ... & Smith, D. J. (2016). Pleiotropy between neuroticism and physical and mental health: findings from 108 038 men and women in UK Biobank. Translational psychiatry, 6(4), e791.
Hill, W.D., Davies, G., CHARGE Cognitive Working Group., Liewald, D.C., McIntosh, A.M., & Deary, I.J. (2015). Age-Dependent Pleiotropy Between General Cognitive Function and Major Psychiatric Disorders. Biological Psychiatry, 80(4), 266-273.
Johnson, M. R., Shkura, K., Langley, S.R., Delahaye-Duriez, A., Srivastava, P., Hill, W.D., 27 authors, Petretto, E. (2015). Systems genetics identifies a convergent gene network for cognition and neurodevelopmental disease. Nature Neuroscience, 19(2), 223.
Davies, 26 authors, Hill, W.D., 100 authors, & Deary, I.J. (2015). Genetic contributions to variation in general cognitive function: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in the CHARGE consortium (N=53 949). Molecular Psychiatry, 20(2), 183.
Lopez, L.M., Hill, W.D., 21 authors, & Wardlaw, J.M. (2015). Genes From a Translational Analysis Support a Multifactorial Nature of White Matter Hyperintensities. Stroke, 46(2), 341-347.
Hill, W.D., de Leeuw, C., Davies, G., Liewald, D.C.M., Payton, A., Craig, L.C., Whalley, L.J., Horan, M., Ollier, W., Starr, J.M., Pendleton, N., Posthuma, D., Bates, & Deary, I.J. (2014). Functional Gene Group Analysis Indicates No Role for Heterotrimeric G Proteins in Cognitive Ability. PlosOne, 9(3), e91690.
Hill, W.D., Davies, G., Van De Lagemaat, L.N., Christoforou, A., Marioni, R.E., Fernandes, C.P.D., Liewald, D.C., Croning, M.D.R., Payton, A., Craig, L.C.A, Whalley, L.J., Horan, M., Ollier, W., Hansell, N.K., Wright, M.J., Martin. N.G., Montgomery, W., Steen, V.M., Le Hellard, S., Espeseth, T., Lundervold, A.J., Reinvang, I., Starr, J.M., Pendleton, N., Grant, S.G.N., Bates, T.C., & Deary, I.J. (2014). Human cognitive ability is influenced by genetic variation in components of postsynaptic signalling complexes assembled by NMDA receptors and MAGUK proteins. Translational Psychiatry, 4(1), e341.
Hill, W.D., Saville, C.W., Kiely, S., Roberts, M.V., Boehm, S.G., Haenschel, C., & Klein, C. (2011). Early electro-cortical correlates of inspection time task performance. Intelligence, 39(5), 370-377.