Professor Lyle Palmer

Professor Palmer is an internationally renowned geneticist and epidemiologist who is expert in the genetics of complex respiratory diseases. He plays key roles in a number of clinical teams in Australia, the UK and the US involving genetics research into asthma, sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, cancer, fetal growth regulation and diabetes. His group is also active in methodological research in statistical genomics and medical informatics.

Professor Palmer is the Foundation Chair in Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Western Australia, where he is also a Professor in the Schools of Medicine & Pharmacology and Population Health. He is the founder of the Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology in the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research. Before returning to Western Australia in mid-2003, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Statistical Genomics at the Channing Laboratory, Boston.

Professor Palmer has been recognized for his leadership role in biomedical research by numerous awards, including Fulbright and Churchill Fellowships. In 2001, Professor Palmer was appointed the youngest ever section editor for the "Encyclopedia of Biostatistics" (EOB), the standard international reference work for biostatistics. Since completing his PhD in 1998, he has chaired and/or given invited symposia at over 30 international scientific meetings, has delivered over 60 invited lectures, has produced over 120 publications, and has co-edited a commercially successful encyclopedia of genetic statistics that has become a standard reference. In 2005 he was recognized as the "Best Business Talent Under 40" by the business community of Western Australia and was named an "Inspirational Western Australian". He is in high demand internationally as a speaker and teacher.

Qualifications

1990	BSc - Double Major in Human Biology and Archaeology, University of Western Australia, Australia
1992	BSc (Hons, first class) - Quantitative Genetics and Epidemiology, University of Western Australia, Australia
1998	PhD - Department of Paediatrics, University of Western Australia, Australia Thesis Title: "The genetic epidemiology of asthma : an investigation of a complex human disease"
2000	FRSS - Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society

Research Interests

• Statistical methodology eg Gibbs sampling
• Asthma, COPD, sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, obesity, fetal growth, diabetes
• Pooled meta-analyses of genetic data
• SNP variation discovery, high-throughput genotyping, pharmacogenomics, phenotype definition

Recent Awards and Honours

2005	Western Australian Business News "40 under 40" Award (awarded to "40 talented Western Australians under the age of 40 who have an exceptional record of achievement within their particular field of endeavor")
2005	Overall Winner, Western Australian Business News "40 under 40" Award ("One, outstanding business talent is selected as the 1st Amongst Equals, from the 40 winners, and becomes an ambassador for the awards for the following year")
2005	Leverhulme Visiting Fellowship, Bristol University
2005	Named 'Ambassador for Science', ScienceNetwork WA and SciTech WA
2005	Named Lotterywest / Scoop Magazine 2005 Inspirational Western Australian
2005	Named Sunday Times 2005 Western Australian Leader
2005	Nominated, Western Australian Citizen of the Year (The Professions)
2006	Awarded the Barbara Ell Lecture, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Sydney
2006	Awarded the John Blandford Oration, XXIII Australian Cornea and Eye Bank Meeting
2007	Awarded the Fred Hollows Lecture, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists
2007	Awarded the Kevin Cullen Lecture, Western Diagnostic Pathology
2007	Named Inspirational Doctor, Western Australian Medical Students' Society

Scientific Involvement

• Busselton Research Foundation Board - Member of Scientific Advisory Committee 1997 onwards.
• Busselton Population Research Foundation - Director on Board of Directors 1998 onwards.
• International Consortium on Asthma Genetics (COAG) - Principal Analyst of Analytic Committee 1998 onwards.
• Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Australia - Member of Executive Committee 1998 to 1999.
• Greater Cleveland Asthma Coalition, Cleveland, OH, USA - Member 1999 onwards.
• American Thoracic Society Assembly on Allergy, Immunology and Inflammation - Member of Program Committee 2001 onwards.
• International Genetic Epidemiology Society - Member of Education Committee 2001 onwards.
• American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Inflammation - Member of Genetics, Molecular Biology and Epidemiology Committee 2002 onwards.
• Sleep Heart Health Study Steering Committee - Member of Genetics subcommittee 2002 onwards.
• International Consortium on the Genetics of Ankylosing Spondylitis - Member of Steering Committee 2003 onwards.
• The Busselton Health Study Research Laboratory - Director 2003 onwards.
• School of Population Health, University of Western Australia - Member of Executive Committee 2003 onwards; Convener of Genomics SIG 2003 onwards.
• The Western Australian Genetic Epidemiology Resource (WAGER) (www.wager.org.au) - Director 2004 onwards.
• Australasian GeneMappers Meeting, Perth, Western Australia (August 2004) - Member of Organizing Committee 2004.
• Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Australia - Member of Higher Degrees Committee 2004 to 2005.
• School of Medicine and Pharmacology (SCGH Branch), University of Western Australia - Member of Executive Committee 2004 onwards.
• Research Committee, University of Western Australia - Member of Clinical Medicine and Dentistry Sub-Committee 2004 to 2005.
• The Joondalup Family Health Study (www.jfhs.org.au) - Scientific Director 2005 onwards.
• Western Australian Genetics Council, Department of Health, Government of Western Australia - Member 2005 onwards.
• The Australian Medical Bioinformatics Resource (AMBeR) - Director 2005 onwards.
• International Public Population Project in Genomics (P3G) (www.p3gconsortium.org) - Member of Steering Committee 2005 onwards; Director on Board of Directors 2005 onwards.
• The Western Australian DNA Bank (WADB) (www.wadb.org.au) - Scientific Director 2006 onwards.
• The Western Australian Twins Register (www.watr.genepi.org.au) - Co-Director (with Prof Nick deKlerk) 2006 onwards.
• Australasian Sleep Trials Network (www.sleeptrials.net) - Member of Executive Committee 2006 onwards.
• Australasian HuGENET Centre (www.cdc.gov/genomics/hugenet) - Director 2007 onwards.

Top 10 Publications

1. Oguma T, Palmer LJ , Birben E, Sonna LA, Asano K and Lilly CM (2004). Role of prostanoid DP receptor variants in susceptibility to asthma. N Engl J Med 351, 1752-63.
2. Cardon LR and Palmer LJ (2003). Population stratification and spurious allelic association. Lancet 361, 598-604.
3. Lonjou C, Barnes K, Chen H, Cookson WOCM, Deichmann KA, Hall IP, Holloway JW, Laitinen T, Palmer LJ, Wjst M and Morton NE (2000). A first trial of retrospective collaboration for positional cloning in complex inheritance: assay of the cytokine region on chromosome 5 by the Consortium on Asthma Genetics (COAG). Proc Natl Acad SciUSA 97, 10942-7.
4. Palmer LJ, Buxbaum SG, Larkin E, Patel SR, Elston RC, Tishler PV and Redline S (2003). A whole genome screen for obstructive sleep apnea and obesity. Am J Hum Genet 72, 340-50.
5. Silverman EK, Palmer LJ, Mosley JD, Barth M, Senter JM, Brown A, Drazen JM, Kwiatkowski DJ, Chapman HA, Campbell EJ, Province MA, Rao DC, Reilly JJ, Ginss LC, Speizer FE and Weiss ST (2002). Genomewide linkage analysis of quantitative spirometric phenotypes in severe, early-onset chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Am JHum Genet70, 1229-39.
6. Altmüller J, Palmer LJ, Fischer G, Scherb H and Wjst M (2001). A review of genome-wide scans in complex human diseases: true linkage is hard to find. Am J Hum Genet 69, 936-50.
7. Burton PR, Palmer LJ, Jacobs KB, Keen KJ, Olson JM and Elston RC (2000). Ascertainment adjustment: where does it take us? Am J Hum Genet 67, 1505-14.
8. Palmer LJ, Paré PD, Faux JA, Moffatt MF, Daniels SE, LeSouëf PN, Bremner PR, Mockford E, Gracey M, Spargo R, Musk AW and Cookson WOCM (1997). Fc_eR1-b polymorphism and total serum IgE levels in endemically parasitised Australian Aborigines. Am J Hum Genet 61, 182-8.
9. James AL, Palmer LJ , Kicic E, Maxwell PS, Lagan SE, Ryan GF and Musk AW (2005). Decline in lung function in the Busselton Health Study: the effects of asthma and cigarette smoking. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 171, 109-14.
10. Celedon JC, Lange C, Raby BA, Litonjua AA, Palmer LJ, DeMeo DL, Reilly JJ, Kwiatkowski DJ, Chapman HA, Laird N, Sylvia JS, Hernandez M, Speizer FE, Weiss ST and Silverman EK (2004). The transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFB1) gene is associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Hum Mol Genet 13, 1649-56.