Naomi Wray

Naomi Wray is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Big Data Institute, University of Oxford. From 2011 to 2023 she held joint appointments at the  the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) and Queensland Brain Institute within the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. She retains a Professorial Research Fellow appointment at IMB. She is a St Hilda's College Professorial Fellow. She holds affiliate Professorial appointment at the University of Aarhus, Denmark and is Honorary Professor of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Launched in June 2024, she leads the Pioneer Centre for SMARTbiomed, a Denmark-Oxford collaboration promoting research in statistical and computational methods for applications in common complex disease. 

Her research focuses on development and application of quantitative genetics and genomics methodologies across complex diseases, disorders and traits, but particularly psychiatric-related traits.

Naomi plays a key role in the International Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and established the sporadic ALS Australia systems genomics consortium (SALSA) funded by the MND Research Australia IceBucket Challenge and FightMND. She is a co-investigator on the Australian Genetics of Depression Study (AGDS) and is currently launching the AGDS-Cello project focused on establishing a cell line resource from participants with a detailed history of anti-depressant use and response measures. She is part of an NHMRC Synergy (2023-2027) "Rhythms and blues: Personalising care for body clock dysfunction in mood disorders",  the Wellcome Trust AMBER (antidepressant medications: biology, exposure and response) project, and the UKRI Immunominds project. 

Naomi is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. In 2020 she was awarded the NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Award for Leadership in Basic Science and the 2021 International Society of Psychiatric Genetics Ming Tsuang Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a Clarivate Highly Cited researcher. She is on the editorial advisory boards of JAMA Psychiatry, Neuron, and Research Directions: Depression.