Kristy Kolc

Research Interests

Clinical Psychology Genetics Neurogenetics Neurology and Neuromuscular Diseases Psychology

Miss Kristy Kolc

School of Psychology

College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences

A skilled and knowledgeable researcher with a passion for helping others. I work extremely well as part of a team and I am a motivated self-starter. I have over 10 years experience working in tertiary education in a variety of roles. I am adaptable and embrace challenges with a “can-do” attitude. I am dedicated and passionate about my work, with a strong desire to make a substantial and positive impact in research as well as towards the success of the organisation and my own career growth.

My honours research was conducted at Macquarie University in Sydney and involved investigating a potential therapeutic for methamphetamine addiction using an animal model. My PhD research involved an exploration of the clinical and molecular expressivity associated with protocadherin-19 (PCDH19) variants and PCDH19 clustering epilepsy. My current research investigates decision-making in major depressive disorder.

Date Position Institution name
2020 - 2023 Adjunct Senior Lecturer University of Adelaide
2018 - ongoing Demonstrator, Research Placement (Neuroscience) University of Adelaide, Adelaide
2018 - ongoing Teaching Assistant, Biological and Psychosocial Factors in Addictions University of Adelaide, Adelaide
2015 - 2015 Research Assistant Macquarie University
2014 - 2015 Undergraduate Scholar Macquarie University
2014 - 2014 Accessibility Coach Macquarie University
2013 - 2015 Educator Camp Australia
2012 - 2013 Clinic Coordinator and Therapist MindSpot Clinic
2012 - 2013 Peer-Assisted Learning Coach and Founder Macquarie University
2006 - 2012 Vice-Chancellor’s Executive Assistant Macquarie University

Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
2016 Invitation Graduate speaker at the Human Sciences graduation ceremony Macquarie University Australia -
2015 Award The Head of Department Prize Macquarie University Australia $100
2015 Award The Department of Psychology Prize for Psychopathology Macquarie University Australia $100
2014 Award The Department of Psychology Prize for Principles of Psychological Assessment Macquarie University Australia $100
2012 Award Mollie Thomson Prize Macquarie University Australia $150

Date Institution name Country Title
Macquarie University Australia Honours (First Class) Degree of Bachelor of Science - Psychology
University of Adelaide, Adelaide Australia PhD in Medicine

Year Citation
2024 Sullivan, J., Gunning, B., Zafar, M., Guerrini, R., Gecz, J., Kolc, K. L., . . . Samanta, D. (2024). Corrigendum to “Phase 2, placebo-controlled clinical study of oral ganaxolone in PCDH19-clustering epilepsy” [Epilepsy Res. (2023) 191 107112] (Epilepsy Research (2023) 191, (S0920121123000372), (10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2023.107112)). Epilepsy Research, 203, 107342.
DOI WoS1
2023 Sullivan, J., Gunning, B., Zafar, M., Guerrini, R., Gecz, J., Kolc, K. L., . . . Samanta, D. (2023). Phase 2, placebo-controlled clinical study of oral ganaxolone in PCDH19-clustering epilepsy. Epilepsy Research, 191, 107112-1-107112-7.
DOI Scopus19 WoS19 Europe PMC16
2023 Kolc, K. L., Tan, K., Lo, A. Z. Y., Shvetcov, A., Mitchell, P. B., & Perkes, I. E. (2023). Measuring psychiatric symptoms online: A systematic review of the use of inventories on Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk). Journal of Psychiatric Research, 163, 118-126.
DOI Scopus9 WoS9 Europe PMC7
2021 Pham, D. H., Pitman, M. R., Sharma, R., Jolly, L., Schulz, R., Gardner, A., . . . Gecz, J. (2021). Integrated in silico and experimental assessment of disease relevance of PCDH19 missense variants. Hum Mutat, 42(8), 1030-1041.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1 Europe PMC1
2020 Sadleir, L. G., Kolc, K. L., King, C., Mefford, H. C., Dale, R. C., Gecz, J., & Scheffer, I. E. (2020). Levetiracetam efficacy in PCDH19 Girls Clustering Epilepsy. European Journal of Paediatric Neurology, 24, 142-147.
DOI Scopus25 WoS23 Europe PMC23
2020 Kolc, K. L., Sadleir, L. G., Depienne, C., Marini, C., Scheffer, I. E., Møller, R. S., . . . Gecz, J. (2020). A standardized patient-centered characterization of the phenotypic spectrum of PCDH19 girls clustering epilepsy. Translational Psychiatry, 10(1), 127-1-127-9.
DOI Scopus32 WoS28 Europe PMC28
2020 Kolc, K. L., Møller, R. S., Sadleir, L. G., Scheffer, I. E., Sharma, R., & Gecz, J. (2020). PCDH19 Pathogenic Variants in Males: Expanding the Phenotypic Spectrum.. Adv Exp Med Biol, 10, 177-187.
DOI Scopus19 Europe PMC15
2018 Kolc, K., Sadleir, L., Scheffer, I., Ivancevic, A., Roberts, R., Pham, D., & Gecz, J. (2018). A systematic review and meta-analysis of 271 PCDH19-variant individuals identifies psychiatric comorbidities, and association of seizure onset and disease severity. Molecular Psychiatry, 24(2), 241-251.
DOI Scopus102 WoS92 Europe PMC80
2017 Pham, D., Tan, C., Homan, C., Kolc, K. L., Corbett, M., McAninch, D., . . . Gecz, J. (2017). Protocadherin 19 (PCDH19) interacts with paraspeckle protein NONO to co-regulate gene expression with estrogen receptor alpha (ERα). Human Molecular Genetics, 26(11), 2042-2052.
DOI Scopus27 WoS25 Europe PMC25

Year Citation
2016 McLachlan, K., & Kolc, K. L. (2016). The Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) Program at Macquarie University: Exploring Critical Success Factors.. In C. Pratt (Ed.), The diversity of university-community engagement: An international perspective (pp. 47-56). Pulau Pinang, Malaysia: Asia Pacific University-Community Engagement Network.

Year Citation
2022 Perkes, I. E., Kolc, K. L., Cooper, D., Farrell, L., & Grisham, J. R. (2022). OCD BOUNCE: A TRANSLATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR CLINICAL CARE AND RESEARCH. In AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY Vol. 56 (pp. 73-74). SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD.
2022 Cooper, D., Lam-Po-Tang, J., Kolc, K. L., Farrell, L., Grisham, J. R., & Perkes, I. E. (2022). DEVELOPMENT OF A CLINICIAN DIRECTORY FOR OCD. In AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY Vol. 56 (pp. 75). SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD.
WoS1
2016 Pham, D., Kolc, K. L., Schulz, R., Corbett, M., Gardner, A., Pitson, S., . . . Gecz, J. (2016). In vitro and in silico assessment of PCDH19 variation. In Human Epilepsy - Understanding biology to improve outcomes. Vibe Hotel, Marysville VIC.

Year Citation
2020 Gecz, J., Kolc, K., Sadleir, L., Depienne, C., Marini, C., Scheffer, I. E., . . . Roberts, R. (2020). Clinical and molecular complexity of X-linked clustering epilepsy, a disorder of cellular mosaics. Poster session presented at the meeting of EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN GENETICS. SPRINGERNATURE.
2018 Kolc, K. L. (2018). PCDH19 systematic review and questionnaire preliminary
findings. Poster session presented at the meeting of Translational Neurogenetics Retreat 2018.
2017 Kolc, K. L. (2017). Male mosaics with PCDH19-GCE. Poster session presented at the meeting of Epilepsy Research Mini-Retreat 2017. Melbourne, Victoria.
2017 Kolc, K. L. (2017). Neuropsychiatric profile of protocadherin-19 girls clustering epilepsy (PCDH19-GCE): A systematic review. Poster session presented at the meeting of 2017 Epilepsy Research Retreat. Marysville, VIC.
2017 Kolc, K. L. (2017). Neuropsychiatric profile of PCDH19 epilepsy:
A systematic review and meta-analysis. Poster session presented at the meeting of World Conference on PCDH19: Scientific Research Status and Therapeutic Perspectives. Rome.

2021 - 2022 ($150,000): Mindgardens Neuroscience Network "Building community-based treatment capacity for children and young people across NSW".

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