Jon Mill - Exeter Biomedical Research Centre

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Jonathan is Professor of Epigenomics at the University of Exeter Medical School where he heads the Complex Disease Epigenomics Group. He graduated with a degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University, where he took a particular interest in cannibalism, before undertaking his PhD in psychiatric genetics at the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. After spending three years as a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, he returned to the Institute of Psychiatry to establish the Psychiatric Epigenetics group. He was appointed as Professor of Epigenomics at the University of Exeter in September 2012.

His group takes an integrated genomics approach to complex disease, with a particular focus on diseases affecting the central nervous system. His team is currently studying the causes and consequences of molecular variation in the brain and the rtole this plays in both neurodegenerative disease (e.g. Alzheimer's disease, ALS, and other types of dementia) and neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. autism, and schizophrenia). His group was funded as part of the NIH Epigenomics Roadmap Initiative, representing the only award made under this scheme outside of North America and putting them at the forefront of complex disease epigenomic research. They are also the only UK group involved in the PsychENCODE consortium, profiling epigenomic variation in autism brain and across neurodevelopment.

Jonathan has received numerous international awards and prizes. These include both a Young and Distinguished Investigator Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, an Advanced Investigator Award from the American Asthma Foundation, the British Medical Association’s Margaret Temple Award, and the ISPG Theodore Reich Prize from the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. Jonathan is an ISI Web of Science “Highly-Cited Researcher”, ranking in the top 1% of researchers by citations for field and year. He is a member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Neuroscience and Mental Health Board, and sits on grant advory boards for Autistica and the Alzheimer's Society.

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Research projects that Jon has been involved in

Developing novel screening strategies to identify modulators of microglial cell states

Neurodegeneration

Understanding the brain’s immune cells to help develop treatments for people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Analysis of extracellular vesicle cargo as biomarkers to differentiate Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies

Neurodegeneration

Understanding and tracking changes in the brain during neurodegeneration to help improve treatments

Identification of novel therapeutic targets for TDP-43 proteinopathies

Neurodegeneration

Improving therapies for neurodegenerative diseases

Developing a Novel Genomic Biomarker for the Early Detection of Neurodegeneration

Neurodegeneration

Improving early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease

Platform for Online Recruitment, Triage and Assessment for Brain Health Research (Brain Health PORTAL)

Neurodegeneration

Creating a new digital resource for brain health research in adults

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News involving Jon

£4.3million funding for world-leading research into severe mental illness

March 5th 2024

UKRI funding will progress understanding, diagnosis and treatment of severe mental illness through a new Mental Health Platform Research Hub.

Top academics join University of Exeter as part of neuroscience expansion

February 6th 2024

Leading neuroscientists will soon be joining our team of world-leading Neurodegeneration researchers.

New programme to move potential MND drugs into clinical trials faster

June 23rd 2023

A ground-breaking experimental medicine programme that will enable researchers to screen potential drugs more rapidly in people with motor neuron disease (MND, also known as ALS), has been announced.