Puya Gharahkhani, PhD

Puya Gharahkhani was awarded his PhD in the field of Genetics in 2012 from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. He is currently employed as a Senior Research Officer in the Statistical Genetics Lab at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane. He is a world-recognized expert in applying statistical genetic methodologies to understand the genetic factors contributing to glaucoma and other complex diseases and traits. His recent national and international collaborations studies have identified several genetic risk variants for glaucoma across populations with different ancestry backgrounds. He has leveraged these risk genes to develop genetic risk prediction models to identify people at high risk before the clinical onset of glaucoma. His research findings have been published in top-ranked scientific journals such as Nature Genetics, Lancet Oncology, and Nature Communications. Within the past four years, Puya has been awarded three successful research grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council to investigate the genetics of glaucoma. This 2021 BrightFocus grant awarded to him further supports his research to discover the genetic basis of glaucoma using innovative approaches and to subsequently leverage risk genes to improve genetic risk prediction and develop new treatments for glaucoma.