Catharine Jawahar

Research Interests

Child and Adolescent Health Early Origins of Health Neuroscience, Behaviour and Brain Health Animal Behaviour Epigenetics Gene Expression Genetics Immunogenetics Neurogenetics Neurosciences Psychiatry

Dr Catharine Jawahar

Lecturer

School of Medicine

College of Health

Dr Catharine Jawahar is a lecturer at the Discipline of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide. She coordinates the undergraduate, Fundamentals of Biological Psychiatry course. Her research focus is on understanding the biological mechanisms mediating psychosocial stress effects to increased risk of psychiatric disorders.

Broadly, my research is on understanding the effects of psychosocial stress on brain development, neuroendocrine and immune functions and behaviors across life-span. As a molecular biologist with a specific interest in the genetics of psychiatric disorders, my research aims to unravel the complex interplay of genes and environment in the onset and progression of various psychiatric disorders. In particular, my research focus is on the effect of early life stressors and their role in programming the brain for later-life psychopathology in either adolescence or adulthood. My primary expertise is with animal models of psychiatric endophenotypes, focused on the effect of early stress and trauma in WT or genetically modified mouse strains. More recently I have also been working with clinical cohorts of depression and psychosis within the discipline in collaboration with other researchers. 

Project 1

Title: DNA methylation effects of childhood trauma exposure in adult psychopathology

Description: This study will analyze epigenome-wide and candidate based methylation differences between those exposed to high vs low childhood trauma. The study will use a small pilot data from a larger Cognitive and Functional analysis in Mood study (CoFaMS) and conduct a systematic review of existing research to understand if distinct methylation profiles underlie various childhood stressor effects. 

Project available for Third-year students

Location: AHMS

Research project start: Semester 1 and 2

 

 

Date Position Institution name
2016 - ongoing Lecturer The University of Adelaide
2011 - 2016 Research Officer/Postgraduate Coordinator University of Adelaide

Language Competency
Hindi Can read, write, speak and understand spoken
Tamil Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review

Date Institution name Country Title
2005 - 2010 University of Melbourne Australia PhD
1999 - 2004 Bharathidasan University India MSc, Life Sciences

Year Citation
2025 Clark, S. R., Toben, C., Jawahar, M. C., Amare, A. T., Palmer, L. J., & Schubert, K. O. (2025). Infection, inflammation, and personalisation: time for an integrated approach to clozapine monitoring. Lancet Psychiatry, 12(9), 620-621.
DOI
2025 Clark, S. R., Arnet, V. K., Jawahar, M. C., Toben, C., Schubert, K. O., & Amare, A. T. (2025). Using Multi-Omic Signatures in the Understanding of Inflammation and Psychosis: Can Methylation-Derived White Blood Cell Proportions Guide Early Intervention?. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, 5(6), 3 pages.
DOI
2024 Ciobanu, L. G., Baryshnikova, N. V., Jawahar, M. C., Toben, C. G., Sokolenko, E., Arnet, V. K., . . . Clark, S. R. (2024). Pre-COVID life expectancy, mortality, and burden of diseases for adults 70 years and older in Australia: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Study. The Lancet Regional Health. Western Pacific, 47, 101092-1-101092-14.
DOI Scopus3 WoS3 Europe PMC3
2023 Clark, S., Wilton, L., Dawson, J., Chiew, K., Jawahar, M. C., Toben, C., . . . Saleem, M. (2023). Dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s: A South Australian perspective on variability in troponin thresholds for myocarditis risk in clozapine treatment. Schizophrenia Research, 268, 114-117.
DOI Scopus3 WoS3 Europe PMC3
2022 Ciobanu, L. G., Stankov, L., Schubert, K. O., Amare, A. T., Jawahar, M. C., Lawrence-Wood, E., . . . Aidman, E. (2022). General intelligence and executive functioning are overlapping but separable at genetic and molecular pathway levels: An analytical review of existing GWAS findings. PLOS ONE, 17(10), e0272368.
DOI Scopus4 WoS3 Europe PMC3
2021 Singhal, G., Morgan, J., Corrigan, F., Toben, C., Jawahar, M. C., Jaehne, E. J., . . . Baune, B. T. (2021). Short-term environmental enrichment is a stronger modulator of brain glial cells and cervical lymph node T cell subtypes than exercise or combined exercise and enrichment. Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, 41(3), 469-486.
DOI Scopus13 WoS12 Europe PMC10
2021 Ahluwalia, T. S., Prins, B. P., Abdollahi, M., Armstrong, N. J., Aslibekyan, S., Bain, L., . . . Alizadeh, B. Z. (2021). Genome-Wide Association Study of Circulating Interleukin 6 Levels Identifies Novel Loci.. Hum Mol Genet, 30(5), 393-409.
DOI Scopus38 WoS37 Europe PMC43
2021 Singhal, G., Jawahar, M. C., Morgan, J., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E. J., Toben, C., . . . Baune, B. T. (2021). TNF signaling via TNF receptors does not mediate the effects of short-term exercise on cognition, anxiety and depressive-like behaviors in middle-aged mice. Behavioural Brain Research, 408(113269), 113269-1-113269-9.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2020 Singhal, G., Morgan, J., Jawahar, M. C., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E. J., Toben, C., . . . Baune, B. T. (2020). Duration of environmental enrichment determines astrocyte number and cervical lymph node T lymphocyte proportions but not the microglial number in middle-aged C57BL/6 mice. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 14(57), 57-1-57-12.
DOI Scopus13 WoS13 Europe PMC10
2020 Singhal, G., Morgan, J., Jawahar, M. C., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E. J., Toben, C., . . . Baune, B. T. (2020). Effects of aging on the motor, cognitive and affective behaviors, neuroimmune responses and hippocampal gene expression. Behavioural Brain Research, 383(6), 112501-1-112501-16.
DOI Scopus26 WoS24 Europe PMC24
2019 Morgan, J. A., Singhal, G., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E. J., Jawahar, M. C., Breen, J., . . . Baune, B. T. (2019). Ceasing exercise induces depression-like, anxiety-like, and impaired cognitive-like behaviours and altered hippocampal gene expression. Brain Research Bulletin, 148, 118-130.
DOI Scopus25 WoS22 Europe PMC21
2019 Singhal, G., Morgan, J., Jawahar, M. C., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E. J., Toben, C., . . . Baune, B. T. (2019). The effects of short-term and long-term environmental enrichment on locomotion, mood-like behavior, cognition and hippocampal gene expression. Behavioural Brain Research, 368(111917), 111917-1-111917-10.
DOI Scopus35 WoS32 Europe PMC31
2019 Singhal, G., Morgan, J., Jawahar, M. C., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E. J., Toben, C., . . . Baune, B. T. (2019). Short-term environmental enrichment, and not physical exercise, alleviate cognitive decline and anxiety from middle age onwards without affecting hippocampal gene expression. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 19(5), 1143-1169.
DOI Scopus17 WoS15 Europe PMC16
2018 Culverhouse, R., Saccone, N., Horton, A., Ma, Y., Anstey, K., Banaschewski, T., . . . Bierut, L. (2018). Collaborative meta-analysis finds no evidence of a strong interaction between stress and 5-HTTLPR genotype contributing to the development of depression. Molecular psychiatry, 23(1), 133-142.
DOI Scopus257 WoS202 Europe PMC187
2018 Morgan, J., Singhal, G., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E., Jawahar, M., & Baune, B. (2018). The effects of aerobic exercise on depression-like, anxiety-like, and cognition-like behaviours over the healthy adult lifespan of C57BL/6 mice. Behavioural Brain Research, 337, 193-203.
DOI Scopus76 WoS72 Europe PMC66
2018 Morgan, J., Singhal, G., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E., Jawahar, M., & Baune, B. (2018). Exercise related anxiety-like behaviours are mediated by TNF receptor signaling, but not depression-like behaviours. Brain Research, 1695, 10-17.
DOI Scopus11 WoS11 Europe PMC9
2018 Morgan, J., Singhal, G., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E., Jawahar, M., & Baune, B. (2018). TNF signalling via the TNF receptors mediates the effects of exercise on cognition-like behaviours. Behavioural Brain Research, 353, 74-82.
DOI Scopus17 WoS16 Europe PMC15
2017 Wong, M., Arcos-Burgos, M., Liu, S., Vélez, J., Yu, C., Baune, B., . . . Licinio, J. (2017). The PHF21B gene is associated with major depression and modulates the stress response. Molecular Psychiatry, 22(7), 1015-1025.
DOI Scopus61 WoS52 Europe PMC47
2016 Grosse, L., Ambrée, O., Jörgens, S., Jawahar, M., Singhal, G., Stacey, D., . . . Baune, B. (2016). Cytokine levels in major depression are related to childhood trauma but not to recent stressors. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 73, 24-31.
DOI Scopus94 WoS89 Europe PMC66
2015 Camara, M., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E., Jawahar, M., Anscomb, H., & Baune, B. (2015). Effects of centrally administered etanercept on behavior, microglia, and astrocytes in mice following a peripheral immune challenge. Neuropsychopharmacology, 40(2), 502-512.
DOI Scopus70 WoS66 Europe PMC59
2015 Camara, M., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E., Jawahar, M., Anscomb, H., & Baune, B. (2015). Tumor necrosis factor alpha and its receptors in behaviour and neurobiology of adult mice, in the absence of an immune challenge. Behavioural Brain Research, 290, 51-60.
DOI Scopus17 WoS17 Europe PMC15
2015 Jaehne, E., Corrigan, F., Toben, C., Jawahar, M., & Baune, B. (2015). The effect of the antipsychotic drug quetiapine and its metabolite norquetiapine on acute inflammation, memory and anhedonia. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior, 135, 136-144.
DOI Scopus36 WoS35 Europe PMC32
2015 Jawahar, M., Murgatroyd, C., Harrison, E., & Baune, B. (2015). Epigenetic alterations following early postnatal stress: a review on novel aetiological mechanisms of common psychiatric disorders. Clinical Epigenetics, 7(1), 122-1-122-13.
DOI Scopus119 WoS106 Europe PMC87
2014 Harrison, E., Jaehne, E., Jawahar, M., Corrigan, F., & Baune, B. (2014). Maternal separation modifies behavioural and neuroendocrine responses to stress in CCR7 deficient mice. Behavioural Brain Research, 263, 169-175.
DOI Scopus25 WoS23 Europe PMC24
2013 Camara, M., Corrigan, F., Jaehne, E., Jawahar, M., Anscomb, H., Koerner, H., & Baune, B. (2013). TNF-α and its receptors modulate complex behaviours and neurotrophins in transgenic mice. PsychoNeuroendocrinology, 38(12), 3102-3114.
DOI Scopus69 WoS64 Europe PMC57
2012 Baune, B., Camara, M., Eyre, H., Jawahar, M., Anscomb, H., & Korner, H. (2012). Tumour necrosis factor - alpha mediated mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction. Translational Neuroscience, 3(3), 263-277.
DOI Scopus47 WoS42
2011 Jawahar, M., Sari, C., Wilson, Y., Lawrence, A., Brodnicki, T., & Murphy, M. (2011). Audiogenic seizure proneness requires the contribution of two susceptibility loci in mice. Neurogenetics, 12(3), 253-257.
DOI Scopus3 WoS3 Europe PMC3
2011 Murphy, M., Wilson, Y., Lawrence, A., Brodnicki, T., & Jawahar, M. (2011). Analysis of the Genetics of Behaviour Using Animal Models. International Journal of Psychology Research, 6(1-2), 41-74.
2008 Jawahar, M., Brodnicki, T., Quirk, F., Wilson, Y., & Murphy, M. (2008). Behavioural analysis of congenic mouse strains confirms stress-responsive loci on chromosomes 1 and 12. Behavior Genetics, 38(4), 407-416.
DOI Scopus7 WoS6 Europe PMC5

Year Citation
2019 Jawahar, M. C., Toben, C. G., & Baune, B. T. (2019). Gene-environment interactions and epigenetic mechanisms in depression. In J. L. de Quevedo, A. F. Carvalho, & C. A. Zarate (Eds.), Neurobiology of Depression: Road to Novel Therapeutics (pp. 17-25). Londone, United Kingdom: Academic Press.
DOI Scopus2
2018 Jawahar, M. C., & Baune, B. T. (2018). Biological Embedding of Childhood Maltreatment in Adult Depression. In B. T. Baune (Ed.), Inflammation and Immunity in Depression Basic Science and Clinical Applications (pp. 301-323). United Kingdom: Academic Press.
DOI Scopus1
2009 Jawahar, M., Wilson, Y., Lawrence, A., Brodnicki, T., & Murphy, M. (2009). Approaches to the Study of the Genetics of Behavioural Variation Using Mice and Rats. In L. Rechi (Ed.), Animal Genetics (pp. 55-79). Nova Science Pub Incorporated.
Scopus1

Year Citation
2020 Ahluwalia, T. S., Armstrong, N. J., Aslibekyan, S., Beekman, M., Cheng, Y., deGeus, E., . . . Alizadeh, B. Z. (2020). Genome wide association study of circulating interleukin 6 levels identifies novel loci. Poster session presented at the meeting of EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN GENETICS. SPRINGERNATURE.
2015 Jawahar, M. C., Toben, C., Izzo, J., Heriot, N., Harrison, E., Murgatroyd, C., & Baune, B. T. (2015). The two-hit stress model:effect of early life stress and later life stressors on adult psychiatric disorders. Poster session presented at the meeting of Abstract. Brisbane.
2015 Jawahar, M. C., Toben, C., Izzo, J., Heriot, N., Harrison, E., Murgatroyd, C., & Baune, B. T. (2015). The two-hit stress model: effect of early life stress and later life stressors on adult psychiatric disorders. Poster session presented at the meeting of Society for Mental Health Research (SMHR) 2015. Brisbane.

Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) Research Committee- Clinical research grant: Associate investigator (AI-C). Title: To investigate the association of complement, oxidative and inflammatory markers and BDNF with cognitive and general function in chronic psychosis. $40,242 Jan 2019- June 2020

Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) Research Committee - Clinical research grant: CI-A. Title: Childhood maltreatment and adult depression status: A pilot study to identify neuro-immune interaction mechanisms mediating early adversity effects on adult depression. $43,772.84 Jan 2015 - Dec 2016

Lecturer: Fundamentals of Biological Psychiatry (PSYCHIAT3200): 2014-2015

Course coordinator: Fundamentals of Biological Psychiatry (PSYCHIAT3200): 2016-present

Module Co-Coordinator: Addiction and Mental Health Module; Reflect, Research and Resolve: 2018-present

Guest lecturer: Biological and Psychosocial Factors in Addiction: 2018-present

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2025 Co-Supervisor Predicting resilience to trauma in adolescence using a multivariate analysis and machine learning approach Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Breanna Terrington
2025 Co-Supervisor The interplay between diet, brain functional connectivity, cognition, and mental health in participants with irritable bowel syndrome: UK Biobank Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Mahnaz Reisian
2025 Co-Supervisor The analysis of mouse and human models of clozapine related adverse effects Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Noor Ul Ain
2025 Co-Supervisor The analysis of mouse and human models of clozapine related adverse effects Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Noor Ul Ain
2025 Co-Supervisor Predicting resilience to trauma in adolescence using a multivariate analysis and machine learning approach Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Breanna Terrington
2025 Co-Supervisor The interplay between diet, brain functional connectivity, cognition, and mental health in participants with irritable bowel syndrome: UK Biobank Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Mahnaz Reisian

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2015 - 2019 Co-Supervisor The Effects of Long-Term Exercise and Stopping Long-Term Exercise on Behaviours and Neurobiology Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Julie A Morgan
2015 - 2020 Co-Supervisor The Differential Effects of Short-Term Physical Exercise, Environmental Enrichment and their Combination, and Short-and-Long-Term Environmental Enrichment on Behavior and Associated Molecular Changes in the Brain of C57BL/6 Mice Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Dr Gaurav Singhal

Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
2024 - 2024 Principal Supervisor Multifactorial model of cognition improves polygenic scores for cognitive function in adolescents. Discipline of Psychiatry, The University of Adelaide - Honours Full Time Breanna Terrington

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