Melanie Bahlo is an Australian statistical geneticist and bioinformatician.

Biography

Bahlo's interest in science and biology developed at a very young age. Growing up in Germany, she used to record the birds that came and visited her bird feeder during winter. Bahlo attended secondary school at

Albury High School Albury High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school located in Albury, a city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1920, the school enrolled approximately 1,000 student ...

Albury Albury (; ) is a major regional city that is located in the Murray River, Murray region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the twin city of Albury–Wodonga, Albury-Wodonga and is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of ...

, Australia. She received her PhD in population genetics from

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

in 1997. Bahlo's research interests include

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...

, and

population genetics Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and among populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as Adaptation (biology), adaptation, s ...

. Her work has "led to the discovery of new genes involved in genetic diseases such as deafness and epilepsy". She is a member of the team of scientists affiliated with the Lowy Medical Research Institute (LMRI) studying the genetic basis for macular telangiectasia type 2. She directed the most recent Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS), which discovered common genetic variants associated with MacTel. Professor Bahlo is Theme Leader and Laboratory Head at WEHI, where her groups work focusses on developing and applying state-of-the-art methods to understand complex genetic datasets to discover the genetic causes of human disorders such as epilepsy, ataxia, dementia, motor neuron disease, Parkinson’s disease, speech disorders and retinal disorders. The work of Bahlo and her team has recently focussed on brain and retinal disorders but previous work has included infectious organisms. Software developed by the Bahlo lab is freely available to other researchers. Bahlo spoke publicly about the challenges of data access in the genome research space, and the importance of repositories for genome data, especially for injecting global equity in genomic data sharing. Bahlo and colleagues (Mark Bennett and Haloom Rafehi) from

WEHI WEHI (), previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobel Prize in 1960 for ...

(formally known as the

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1 ...

) were members of an international consortium responsible for discovering two new gene mutations responsible for a rare type of epilepsy. Bahlo and colleagues also undertook pivotal work identifying five genetic risk locations in people who may be at risk of an inherited eye disease that can cause blindness, Macular Telangiectasia type 2.

Awards

*2024

Victorian Honour Roll of Women The Victorian Honour Roll of Women was established in 2001 to recognise the achievements of women from the Australian state of Victoria. It was launched by The Hon. Joan Kirner AC as a joint initiative of the Centenary of Federation Victoria Comm ...

*2023 Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours for "significant service to genetic and infectious disease research, and to public health" *2020 Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences is an academy to promote health and medical sciences in Australia. It was established in June 2014. It cites "The Academy will serve the three purposes identified as of high priority in the 2 ...

*2010 Future Fellowship,

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

*2010 Senior Research Fellowship

National Health and Medical Research Council The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the main statutory authority of the Australian Government responsible for medical research. It was the eighth largest research funding body in the world in 2016, and NHMRC-funded res ...

*2009 Moran Medal,

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

*2009–present Craven and Shearer Award,

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute WEHI (), previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research research institute, institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobe ...

Grants

*2014–2018 Program Grant "Computational and statistical bioinformatics for medical 'omics'", National Health and Medical Research Council *2008–2012 Program Grant "Genetic and Bioinformatic Analysis of Complex Human Diseases", National Health and Medical Research Council

Service to the community

*2014 Panel Member, Marsden Fund New Zealand *2014

Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) is an organisation that was founded in 1888 as the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science to promote science. It was modelled on the British ...

Lecture: "Using statistics to find the causes of inherited diseases" *2014 Invited attendee "Translation of Omics-Based Discoveries into Clinical Research and Practice", Workshop, National Health and Medical Research Council *2014 Gene Technology Access Centre Afternoon Tea with Victorian Teachers *2014 Gene Technology Access Centre Year 9 Students "Meet the scientists"

Memberships

* Human Genetics Society of Australia * American Society for Human Genetics *

Statistical Society of Australia The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in Australia. It was founded in 1962 to support and unify the work of Australian state statistical societies that were al ...

* International Statistics Institute *

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahlo, Melanie Living people Australian women scientists Wikibomb2016 Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Monash University alumni Members of the Order of Australia