Murray Cairns, BSc(hon), Ph.D.
Young Investigator

Dr. Murray J. Cairns graduated from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, with a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular genetics. He then worked as a postdoctoral scientist for Johnson and Johnson Research, Sydney, Australia, developing therapeutic applications of nucleic acid based gene-silencing technologies. Dr. Cairns is currently a Senior Research Officer for the Schizophrenia Research Institute with laboratories situated at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He has continued an interest in gene silencing and is now investigating how changes in endogenous non-coding RNA expression influences the pattern and timing of gene expression in schizophrenia. Small non-coding RNA molecules known as microRNAs can regulate the expression of hundreds of genes simultaneously through post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS). They appear to have an important role in brain development and their dysfunction has already been shown to be involved in some neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Cairns will use the NARSAD grant to examine schizophrenia-associated changes in microRNA expression in postmortem cortical brain tissues.

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