Dr. Neil Youngson

Biography

Neil Youngson is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales. His main scientific interests lie in non-Mendelian mechanisms of phenotype transmission in mammals and their evolutionary health implications. He completed his PhD in 2005 under the supervision of Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith at Cambridge University. Between 2006 and 2012, he was part of a research group led by Professor Emma Whitelaw at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, where he worked with mouse models to investigate non-genetic inheritance. Since joining UNSW in 2012, Youngson has been focused on understanding how epigenetic molecules are inherited across generations and influence the phenotype of offspring. His work also emphasizes the complex interactions between environmental factors and the genome in developing obesity. Recent discoveries in Professor Morris's lab have shown that lifetime experiences of an individual’s parents may influence the risk of developing obesity, highlighting the role of epigenetic factors beyond traditional genetic inheritance. This evolving understanding of the role of epigenetic molecules in obesity represents a promising frontier in disease research.

Research Interests