Dr Tom Burne - Neurobiology

Dr Tom Burne

 Contact Information

  t.burne@uq.edu.au
  Building: QBI Building #79
  Room: 529
  Tel: +61 7 334 66371

 Mailing Address

  Queensland Brain Institute
  The University of Queensland
  Brisbane, 4072
  Queensland,
  Australia

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Short biography

Research directions

Current collaborations

Selected publications

Short biography

Dr Burne obtained his PhD in Neurophysiology and Behaviour, under the supervision of Professor Lesley Rogers (DSc, FABiol,FAA), from the University of New England in 1997. Dr Burne went on to study behavioural neuroscience in the UK at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge, UK. His postdoctoral work with Professors Steven Rose (Open University, UK) and Lawrence Wilkinson (University of Cambridge, UK) has provided him with the foundation for a well-regarded and flourishing program in behavioural neuroscience since his return to Australia in 2002. Dr Burne is now part of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and has been with the Queensland Brain Institute since 2005. He has published over 70 referred papers and book chapters and, in collaboration with colleagues, attracted over $2 million in grant funding (including from the NHMRC and Brain Research Foundation). Dr Burne is a member of the University of Queensland Animal Ethics Committee, an Academic Editor for PLoS One and on the executive committee for the Australian Society for Psychiatric Research.

Research directions



Dr Burne’s group studies brain development and behaviour in animal models to learn more about neuropsychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia.
 
Research is focused on investigating the underlying biological basis for schizophrenia, with the goal of finding public health interventions that will alleviate the burden of this disease. The group has been exploring the impact of developmental vitamin D (DVD) deficiency on brain development, the impact of adult vitamin D deficiency on brain function and behaviour and, more recently, the neurobiological affects of having an older father.

Dr Burne’s research is carried out in close collaboration with Professor John McGrath and A/Prof Darryl Eyles, in a multidisciplinary team. Together they have an integrated research program using a broad range of neuroscientific techniques to explore potential causes of schizophrenia. There is a particular focus on early life, nongenetic risk factors and the team has skills in epidemiology, psychiatry, neuroanatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology and behavioural neuroscience. The Burne group is currently developing animal models related to risk factors for schizophrenia, with a focus on three broad research areas.

Developmental vitamin D deficiency in rodents

In 2010 the Burne group, in collaboration with QBI’s A/Prof Darryl Eyles and Professor John McGrath, built on its previous research showing that low prenatal vitamin D (the ‘sunshine hormone’) is associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia and this work was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. We have explored the behaviour, brain neurochemistry and receptor profile associated with vitamin D deficiency in animal models. Now the collaboration is investigating the impact of DVD deficiency on social and cognitive behaviours. Research into the impact of adult vitamin D deficiency on brain function has also started.

Attentional processing in animals

The Burne group has also expanded its research tools, with a suite of cognitive behavioural tasks to assess attentional processing in rodents. The goal now is to investigate the neurobiology of altered cognition in animal models, by looking at selected cognitive domains – sensorimotor gating, working memory, attention and speed of processing, learning and memory, and problem solving – that are known to be disrupted in schizophrenia. In collaboration with other neuroscientists at QBI, we have begun to incorporate other species, such as zebrafish and fruit flies, to ask questions of the “small brain” and this research made the cover of Molecular Psychiatry.

Advanced paternal age in rodents

In 2010 the group published the first comprehensive study of the impact of advanced paternal age in a mouse model on behaviour and brain structure. In collaboration with researchers at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, explorations into behavioural, genomic and brain imaging in a mouse model are now underway.


Current collaborations

  • Prof John McGrath, The University of Queensland

  • Dr Darryl Eyles, The University of Queensland

  • Prof Alan Mackay-Sim, Griffith University

  • Prof Emma Whitelaw, Queensland Institute for Medical Research
  • 
Dr Amy Johnston, Griffith University
  • 
Dr Tim Karl, Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute
  • 
Dr Chao Deng, University of Wollongong

  • Dr Fred Meunier, The University of Queensland

  • Dr Ethan Scott, The University of Queensland

  • A/Prof Bruno van Swinderen, The University of Queensland 

Selected publications

Harms, L. R., Turner, K. M., Eyles, D. W., Young, J. W., McGrath, J. J. and Burne, T. H. J. (2012) Attentional processing in C57BL/6J mice exposed to developmental vitamin D deficiency. PLoS One, 7(4), e35896.

Kesby, J. P., O’Loan, J. C., Alexander, S., Deng, C., Huang, X. F., McGrath, J. J., Eyles, D. W. and Burne, T. H. J. (2012) Developmental vitamin D deficiency alters MK-801-induced behaviours in adult offspring. Psychopharmacology, 220(3), 455-463.

Harms, L. R., Cowin, G., Eyles, D. W., Kurniawan, N., McGrath, J. J. and Burne, T. H. J. (2012) Neuroanatomy and psychomimetic-induced locomotion in C57BL/6J and 129/X1SvJ mice exposed to developmental vitamin D deficiency. Behavioural Brain Research, 230(1), 125-131.

Flatscher-Bader, T., Foldi, C. J., Chong, S., Whitelaw, E., Moser, R. J., Burne, T. H. J., Eyles, D. W. and McGrath, J. J. (2011) Increased de novo copy number variants in the offspring of older males. Translational Psychiatry, 1, e34.

Kesby, J. P., Eyles, D. W., Burne, T. H. J. and McGrath, J. J. (2011) The effects of vitamin D on brain development and adult brain function. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 347(1-2), 121-127.

Burne, T. H. J., Scott, E., van Swinderen, B., Hilliard, M., Reinhard, J., Claudianos, C., Eyles, D. W. and McGrath, J. J. (2011) Big ideas for small brains: what can psychiatry learn from worms, flies, bees and fish? Molecular Psychiatry, 16(1), 7-16.

Foldi, C. J., Eyles, D. W., Flatcher-Bader, T., McGrath, J. J. and Burne, T. H. J. (2011). New perspectives on rodent models of advanced paternal age: Relevance to autism. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 5, 32.

Karl, T., Burne, T. H. J., van den Buuse, M., Chesworth, R. (2011) Do transmembrane domain neuregulin 1 mutant mice exhibit a reliable sensorimotor gating deficit? Behavioural Brain Research, 223(2), 336-341.

Kesby, J. P., Cui, X., O’Loan, J., McGrath, J. J., Burne, T. H. J. and Eyles, D. W. (2010). Developmental vitamin D deficiency alters dopamine-mediated behaviors and dopamine transporter function in adult female rats. Psychopharmacology, 208, 159-168.

Burne, T. H. J., Johnston, A. N. B., Wilkinson, L. S. and Kendrick, K. M. (2010). Effects of anesthetic agents on socially transmitted olfactory memories in mice. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 93, 268–274.

Foldi, C. J., Eyles, D. W., McGrath, J. J. and Burne, T. H. J. (2010) Advanced paternal age is associated with alterations in discrete behavioural domains and cortical neuroanatomy of C57BL/6J mice. European Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 556-564.

Eyles, D., Anderson, C., Ko, P., Burne, T., Jones, A., Thomas, A., Mortensen, P. B., Norgarrd-Pedersen, B., Hougarrd, D. M., McGrath, J. J. (2010) The utility of neonatal dried blood spots for the assessment of neonatal vitamin D status. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 24(3), 303-308.

McGrath, J. J., Eyles, D. W., Pedersen, C. B., Anderson, C., Ko, P., Burne, T. H., Norgaard-Pedersen, B., Hougaard, D. M., Mortensen, P. B. (2010) Neonatal vitamin D status and risk of schizophrenia: a population-based case-control study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(9), 889-894.

McGrath, J. J., Burne, T. H., Feron, F., Mackay-Sim, A., and Eyles, D. W. (2010) Developmental vitamin D deficiency and risk of schizophrenia: a ten-year update. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 36(6), 1073-1078.

Cui X., Pelekanos, M., Burne, T. H. J., McGrath, J. J. and Eyles, D. W. (2010) Maternal vitamin D deficiency alters the expression of genes involved in dopamine specification in the developing rat mesencephalon. Neuroscience Letters, 486(3), 220-223.

Saha, S., Barnett, A., Foldi, C., Burne, T., Eyles, D., Buka, S. and McGrath, J. (2009). Advanced paternal age is associated with impaired neurocognitive outcomes during infancy and childhood. PLoS Medicine, 6(3), e40.

Eyles, D., Anderson, C., Ko, P., Jones, A., Thomas, A., Burne, T., Mortensen, P.B., Norgaard-Pedersen, B., Hougaard, D.M., McGrath, J.J. (2009) A sensitive LC/MS/MS assay of 25OH vitamin D3 and 25OH vitamin D3 in dried blood spots. Clinica Chimica Acta, 403(1-2), 145-151.

Kesby, J. P., Cui, X., Ko, P., McGrath, J. J., Burne, T. H. J. and Eyles, D. W. (2009). Developmental vitamin D deficiency alters dopamine turnover in neonatal rat forebrain. Neuroscience Letters, 461(2), 155-158.

Eyles, D. W., Feron, F. Cui, X., Kesby, J. P., Harms, L. H., Ko, P., McGrath, J. J. and Burne, T. H. J. (2009). Developmental vitamin D deficiency causes abnormal brain development. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34S, S247-S257.

Han, M, Deng, C. Burne, T.H.J., Newell, K.A. and Huang, X.-F. (2008). Short- and long-term effects of antipsychotic drug treatment on weight gain and H1 receptor expression. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 33(5), 569-580.

Johnston, A. N. B. and Burne, T. H. J. (2008). Aposematic colouration enhances memory formation in domestic chicks trained in a weak passive-avoidance learning-paradigm. Brain Research Bulletin, 76, 313-316.

Harms, L. R., Eyles, D. W., McGrath, J. J., Mackay-Sim, A. and Burne, T. H. J. (2008). Developmental vitamin D deficiency alters adult behaviour in 129/SvJ and C57BL/6J mice. Behavioural Brain Research, 187(2), 343-350.

Catts,V., Almenhali, N., Burne, T., Colditz, M., Coulson, E. (2008). The p75 neurotrophin receptor regulates hippocampal neurogenesis and related behaviors. European Journal of Neuroscience, 28(5), 883-892.

Murrell, W., Wetzig, A., Donnellan, M. Féron, F., Burne, T., Meedeniya, A., Kesby, J., Bianco, J., Perry, C., Silburn, P. Mackay-Sim, A. (2008). Olfactory mucosa is a potential source for autologous stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Stem Cells, 26(8), 2183-2192.

Burne, T. H. J., Eyles, D. W. and McGrath, J. J. (2008). Commentary on Crespi and Badcock. Animal models may help fractionate shared and discrete pathways underpinning schizophrenia and autism. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31(3), 264-265.

Kesby, J., Burne, T. H. J., McGrath, J. J. and Eyles, D. W. (2006). Developmental vitamin D deficiency is associated with MK-801-induced hyperlocomotion in the adult rat: an informative animal model of schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 60(6), 591-6.

Burne, T. H. J., Johnston, A. N. B., McGrath, J. J. and Mackay-Sim, A. (2006) Swimming behaviour and post-swimming activity in vitamin D receptor knockout mice. Brain Research Bulletin, 69(1), 74-78.

Karl, T. Burne, T. H. J. and Herzog, H. (2006) Effect of Y1 receptor deficiency on motor activity, exploration and anxiety. Behavioural Brain Research, 167(1), 87-93.

 

 


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