Azmeraw Amare

Associate Professor Azmeraw Amare

NHMRC Emerging Leadership-1 Fellow (D)

Adelaide Medical School

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Associate Professor Azmeraw Amare is a Clinical and Genetic Epidemiologist, interested in Precision medicine, pharmacogenomics, and translational medicine, and with particular expertise in using multi-omics approaches — including genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics — to understand the biological basis of complex health conditions related to mental health, pharmacogenomics, cardiometabolic disorders and healthy ageing indices (such as intrinsic capacity) — in multiracial and multi-trait context.
 
He has a multidisciplinary educational background, with academic qualifications in:
 
• Epidemiology (PhD1, the University of Groningen in the Netherlands)
• Medicine (PhD2, the University of Adelaide in Australia)
• Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology (MSc, the University of Groningen in the Netherlands), and
• Public Health Research Methodology (MPH, Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium).
 
A/Professor Amare is the NHMRC Emerging Leadership-1 Investigator (2021-2026), ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Awardee (2021, deferred) and the US Brain Behaviour Research Foundation NARSAD Young Investigator (2019-2021) and leads the Genetic Epidemiology Research Group based at the Adelaide Medical School, the University of Adelaide.His research, which has been conducted in collaboration with scientists around the world, has sought to find an answer to fundamental questions about how genetics and the interaction between genetic and environmental factors regulate individuals’ risk to mental illness and response to pharmacological treatment. He has led several genetic association studies that identified novel genes underlying; (i) risk to mental illness (Amare AT, et al. Nature: Molecular Psychiatry, 2020), (ii) response to pharmacological treatment (Amare AT, et al. JAMA Psychiatry 2018; 75(1): 65-74.), (iii) variability in cardiovascular traits (Nolte IM, Munoz ML, Tragante V, Amare AT, et al. Nature Communications 2017; 8: 15805) and (iv) the overlapping effects of mental- and physical medical disorders (Amare AT, et al. Translational Psychiatry 2017; 7: e1007).
 
A/Professor Amare has an extraordinary publication track record:
 
• Authored (co-) 122 articles (46 in the last five years & >21 as a first/last author) and a book chapter, with 89% of them published in prestigious SCImago Q1 journals including in Nature, Nature Communications, Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Psychiatry and Molecular Psychiatry, 54.4% listed in top 1%, 75% in top 10% (InCites).
• Total career citations > 122,000 (Google Scholar), with H-index of 62, and an average FWCI of 52.59.
 
The impact of his work has been recognised by prizes, honours, scholarships and grant awards, including:
 
• 2023 Young Tall Poppy winner for excellence in Australian science and science communication by The Australian Institute of Policy & Science (AIPS).
• African South Australian Trailblazer of the Year 2025 by African Communities Council of South Australia.
• Selected for two consecutive years (2019 and 2020) by the Australian Review, as one of Australia’s top 40 Rising stars (best of 5 in Health and Medical Sciences list) among ECRs) under 10 years.
• 2018 University DOCTORAL RESEARCH MEDAL for outstanding research at PhD level (the University of Adelaide).
• DEAN'S COMMENDATION for Doctoral Thesis Excellence (the University of Adelaide).

Genetic Epidemiology Research Group 

Group Leader: Associate Professor Azmeraw Amare

Vision and Overall Aim

Our DNA carries the basic instructions needed to reproduce, develop, survive and restore cellular damages. Unpacking DNA information and understanding the mechanisms of how our genes interact with the external environment — and how these interactions are translated into proteins— is vital for designing a personalized approach to treatment, disease prevention and/or health promotion — to ultimately realize the century’s vision of precision medicine. Our group applies state-of-the-art data science techniques to understand the interaction of biological and environmental determinants underlying the variability of human complex phenotypes. Specifically, we focus on the study of MULTI-OMICS factors [genomics (DNA), epigenomes, transcriptomics (RNA), proteomics (Protein), metabolomics and microbiomes] that underlie the risk of complex diseases and influence patient treatment outcomes. s. Our goal is to identify biomarkers for diagnosis, predict treatment outcomes, and inform strategies for health promotion and disease prevention, ultimately reducing disease burden.

Leveraging MULTI-OMICS data obtained from international biobanks, our research applies advanced bioinformatic techniques to explore the “omics” of (a) risk- and pharmacological treatment response to mental health disorders (depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia), (b) ageing traits (frailty, longevity, cognition and intrinsic capacity), (c) neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer's disease and other dementias), and (d) mechanism of genetic overlap across physical medical and mental health disorders. 

Areas of research include
  • Pharmaco-OMICS in Psychiatry — Investigating how OMICS factors (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics,
    proteomics and /or metabolomics) influence treatment outcomes, including response, remission, resistance, polypharmacy, and adverse drug reactions in patients with mental illness, and applying this knowledge to optimize treatment strategies.
  • Psychiatric Genomics — Studying the genetic underpinnings of major psychiatric disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
  • Genetic overlap across physical medical and mental health disorders — Uncovering shared genetic mechanisms that contribute to comorbidities between mental and physical health conditions.
  • Genomics of healthy ageing traits — Investigating the OMICS basis of healthy ageing trajectory (human intrinsic capacity) and the relationship of human intrinsic capacity (IC) with physical and mental health endpoints, including disability, morbidity, and mortality
  • Diversity Genomics — Applying OMICS science to improve health outcomes among culturally and linguistically diverse populations.
  • Epidemiology of Mental Illness — Understanding population-level patterns, risk factors, and outcomes of mental health disorders to inform effective clinical interventions.
  • Pharmacoepidemiology — Evaluating the use and effects of psychiatric medications in large populations to inform safer and more effective treatment practices.

“We have a place for Honours / PhD/ Masters / Mphil students who are interested in big data analytics — both multi-omics (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) & clinical data using python or R programming languages. Students with a quantitative science background such as bioinformatics, computer science, mathematics, physics, engineering, Epidemiology/Biostatistics etc would be appropriate.”

Pharmacogenomics

Selected Publications & Knowledge Impact

  1. Amare AT, Schubert KO, Hou L, Clark SR, Papiol S, Heilbronner U et al [112 co-authors]. Association of Polygenic Score for Schizophrenia and HLA Antigen and Inflammation Genes With Response to Lithium in Bipolar Affective Disorder: A Genome-Wide Association Study. JAMA Psychiatry 2018. Citations=163; Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)=7.96
  2. Amare AT, Schubert KO, Klingler-Hoffmann M, Cohen-Woods S, Baune BT. The genetic overlap between mood disorders and cardiometabolic diseases: a systematic review of genome-wide and candidate gene studies. Translational Psychiatry 2017. Citations=370; FWCI=3.57
  3. Amare AT, et al [310 co-authors]. Association of Polygenic Score for Major Depression with Response to Lithium in Patients with Bipolar Disorder. Nature: Molecular Psychiatry, 2020. Citations=84; FWCI=3.49
  4. Amare AT, Ahmad Vaez, Yi-Hsiang Hsu, Nese Direk, Zoha Kamali, David M. Howard, Andrew M. McIntosh, Henning Tiemeier, Ute Bültmann, Harold Snieder, Catharina A. Hartman. Bivariate genome-wide association analyses of a broad depression phenotype combined with major depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia reveal eight novel genetic loci for depression. Nature: Molecular Psychiatry 2020. Citations=107; FWCI=3.03
  5. Amare AT, Schubert KO, Baune BT. Pharmacogenomics in the treatment of mood disorders: Strategies and Opportunities for personalized psychiatry. The EPMA journal 2017. Citations=122; FWCI=2.73
  6. Amare AT, Schubert KO, Tekola-Ayele F, Hsu YH, Sangkuhl K, Jenkins G et al. Association of the Polygenic Scores for Personality Traits and Response to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder. Frontiers in Psychiatry 2018. Citations=56; FWCI=2.32
  7. Amare AT, Thalamuthu A, Schubert KO, et al. Association of polygenic score and the involvement of cholinergic and glutamatergic pathways with lithium treatment response in patients with bipolar disorder. Nature: Molecular Psychiatry 2023. Citations=32; FWCI=2.65
  8. Amare AT, Caughey GE, Whitehead C, Lang CE, Bray SCE, Corlis M, Visvanathan R, Wesselingh S, Inacio MC. The prevalence, trends and determinants of mental health disorders in older Australians living in permanent residential aged care: Implications for policy and quality of aged care services. The Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 2020. Citations=54.
  9. Alemu R, Sharew NT, Arsano YY, Ahmed M, Tekola-Ayele F, Mersha TB, Amare AT. Multi-omics approaches for understanding gene-environment interactions in noncommunicable diseases: techniques, translation, and equity issues. Human Genomics. 2025. Citations=23; FWCI=6.20
  10. Beyene MB, Visvanathan R, Ahmed M, Benyamin B, Beard JR, Amare AT. Development and validation of an intrinsic capacity score in the UK Biobank study. Maturitas 2024. Citations=11; FWCI=3.65
  11. Beyene MB, Visvanathan R, Alemu R, Benyamin B, Bhattacharjee R, Beyene HB, Theou O, Cesari M, Beard JR, Amare AT. A genome-wide association study identified 10 novel genomic loci associated with intrinsic capacity. Journals of Gerontology Series: Biological Sciences 2025. doi:10.1101/2025.02.05.25321753
  12. Beyene MB, Visvanathan R, Amare AT. Intrinsic Capacity and Its Biological Basis: A Scoping Review. J Frailty Aging 2024. doi:10.14283/jfa.2024.30
  13. Sharew NT, et al [160 co-authors], Amare AT, Pathway-Specific Polygenic Scores for Lithium Response for Predicting Clinical Lithium Treatment Response in Patients with Bipolar Disorder: Pathway Specific PGSs for Lithium Response in BD Patients. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science. 2025.
  14. Sharew NT, Clark SR, Schubert KO, Amare AT. Pharmacogenomic scores in psychiatry: systematic review of current evidence. Transl Psychiatry 2024. doi:10.1038/s41398-024-02998-6
  15. Amare AT, Schubert KO, Tekola-Ayele F, Hsu YH, Sangkuhl K, Jenkins G et al. The association of obesity and coronary artery disease genes with response to SSRIs treatment in major depression. Journal of neural transmission 2019.
  16. Visvanathan R, Amare AT, Wesselingh S, et al. Prolonged Wait Time Prior to Entry to Home Care Packages Increases the Risk of Mortality and Transition to Permanent Residential Aged Care Services: Findings from the Registry of Older South Australians (ROSA). The Journal of nutrition, health and aging 2019; 23(3): 271-80.
  17. Stacey D, Schubert KO, Clark SR, Amare AT, Milanesi E, Maj C et al. A gene co-expression module implicating the mitochondrial electron transport chain is associated with long-term response to lithium treatment in bipolar affective disorder. Transl Psychiatry 2018; 8(1): 183.
  18. Opel N, Amare AT, Redlich R, Repple J, Kaehler C, Grotegerd D et al. Cortical surface area alterations shaped by the genetic load for neuroticism. Molecular Psychiatry 2018.
  19. Nolte IM, Munoz ML, Tragante V, Amare AT, Jansen R, Vaez A et al. Genetic loci associated with heart rate variability and their effects on cardiac disease risk. Nature Communications 2017.
  20. Ciobanu LG, Ferrari AJ, Erskine HE, Santomauro DF, Charlson FJ, Leung J Amare AT et al. The prevalence and burden of mental and substance use disorders in Australia: Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. The Australian & New Zealand journal of psychiatry 2018; 52(5): 483-490.
  • 2021-2026 NHMRC Investigator Grant Emerging Leadership. Role: CIA (AUD 650,740).
  • 2022-2027 NHMRC-EU Collaborative Research - Horizon 2020 Programme. Role: CID (AUD 500,000).
  • 2022-2027 European Commission - Horizon 2020 Programme Collaborative Research. Role: AI (EURO 11 million). PSYCH-STRATA - A Stratified Treatment Algorithm in Psychiatry: A program on stratified pharmacogenomics in severe mental illness
  • 2022-2027 MRFF 2021 Genomics Health Futures Mission: The Australian Genetic Diversity Database: towards a more equitable future for genomic medicine in Australia. Role: CI (AUD 10 million).
  • 2022 University of Adelaide international travel Award, AUD 3,000.
  • Early Career Travel Award by the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics (ISPG) to attend the World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics (WCPG) in Florence (Italy)
  • 2021 ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). Role: CIA (AUD 365,000, defer).
  • 2021 The University of Adelaide, Faculty Emerging Leaders Development Award. Role: CIA (AUD 40,000).
  • 2019-2021 Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation NARSAD young investigator grant. Role: CIA (AUD 102,000).
  • 2019 & 2020 (two consecutive years) Recognised as one of Australia’s top 40 Rising stars (best of 5 in Health & Medical Sciences list) among all researchers under 10 years into their research career by The Australian newspaper research Review.  https://specialreports.theaustralian.com.au/1540291/27/
  • 2018 University of Adelaide Doctoral Research Medal for Outstanding research at PhD level and Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence.
  • 2017 University of Adelaide international research travel grant (AUD 3000).
  • 2017 World Psychiatric Association Young Scientists Fellowship by the World Psychiatric Association [Germany].
  • 2015-2018 Adelaide Scholarship International (est.AUD 220,000) [Australia].
  • 2014 University of Washington summer Scholarship to attend the 19th summer institute in statistical genetics courses [USA].
  • 2012-2014 University of Groningen International Scholarship for Postgraduate Study [Netherlands]
  • 2011-2012 Government of Belgium University Commission for Development (CIUF-CUD) Postgraduate Scholarship [Belgium].

Course coordinator and lecturer for the course "Genetic Epidemiology"

  • Position: NHMRC Emerging Leadership-1 Fellow (D)
  • Phone: 83137438
  • Email: azmeraw.amare@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: West End Health Precinct
  • Building: AHMS - Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences, floor Sixth Floor
  • Org Unit: Medical Specialties
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