Claire Shepherdprofile image
Dr

Claire Shepherd


Current Appointments

Director Sydney Brain Bank
Conjoint Lecturer in Pathology, UNSW

Dr Claire Shepherd is the Director of the Sydney Brain Bank at Neuroscience Research Australia. She trained in neuroscience and completed her PhD in Alzheimers disease at the University of Sheffield, UK. After completing her PhD she relocated to Sydney to pursue her interest in the neuropathology of dementia. Soon after her move, Claire was awarded the prestigious Rolf Edgar Lake Fellowship from the University of Sydney and subsequently directed a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant as CIA. In 2000 Claire was awarded the inaugural Franz Nissl Young Investigator Prize in Neuroscience in recognition of achievements in her early post-doctoral years. She now runs the Sydney Brain Bank, which is a research facility that collects, characterises and stores brain tissue for research into neurodegenerative disease. Claire is also the Director of the Shepherd Dementia Research Laboratory at NeuRA and lead investigator on the NeuRA Volunteers Brain Donor Program a longitudinal research program aimed at investigating the clinical consequences of the cellular changes that occur during ageing. In October 2019, Claire received funding from the Brain Foundation for a new research program that will investigate the presence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain tissue of a large population of well-characterised individuals held by the Sydney Brain Bank and determine any association with repetitive traumatic brain injury exposure. On 27 November, the National Rugby League (NRL) announced support of a Newcastle University-based research program for former players. The participants in this program will be invited to donate their brains to the Sydney Brain Bank after death to facilitate medical research.  This is part of Claire's newest research into how sports-related brain changes impact on a players quality of life.


Publications

2024, 01 Jan

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of Parkinson’s disease

View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1167389368

2023, 01 Dec

Author Correction: Elucidating causative gene variants in hereditary Parkinson’s disease in the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2) (npj Parkinson's Disease, (2023), 9, 1, (100), 10.1038/s41531-023-00526-9)

View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1164031892

2023, 01 Dec

Defining the causes of sporadic Parkinson’s disease in the global Parkinson’s genetics program (GP2)

View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1164024681

2023, 01 Dec

Heterogeneity of cortical pTDP-43 inclusion morphologies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1165911804

2023, 01 Nov

Identification of genetic risk loci and causal insights associated with Parkinson's disease in African and African admixed populations: a genome-wide association study

View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1163494217

2023, 17 Oct

Redox-Mediated Rewiring of Signalling Pathways: The Role of a Cellular Clock in Brain Health and Disease

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox12101873

2023, 21 Aug

Effects of STN/SNr deep brain stimulation in a case of progressive supranuclear palsy with a Parkinson disease phenotype

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1093/jnen/nlad052

2023 Aug

Treatment with the copper compound CuATSM has no significant effect on motor neuronal pathology in patients with ALS

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1111/nan.12919

2023 Jun

The relationship between traumatic brain injury and the neuropathology of dementia

View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1159863573

2023, 01 Mar

Riluzole is associated with decreasing neuritic plaque severity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac467