About
Associate Professor Miguel Rentería leads the Computational Neurogenomics Laboratory in the Brain and Mental Health Program at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. He also holds appointments as an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Queensland and as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Queensland University of Technology. His work is supported by an Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship from the Rebecca L. Cooper Medical Research Foundation, and he is an Atlantic Glocal Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.
He completed a Bachelor of Science in Genomic Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Queensland, and a Master of Public Policy at the University of Oxford as a Chevening Scholar. He undertook postdoctoral training in the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Associate Professor Rentería has authored more than 135 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals—including Nature, Cell, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, BRAIN, SLEEP, and NeuroImage—which have accumulated approximately 13,000 citations, resulting in an h-index of 42. This impactful output has placed him in the Stanford–Elsevier ranking of the world's top 2% most-cited scientists. His research program has attracted more than AUD $10 million in competitive funding from organisations including the NHMRC, MRFF, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the US National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer's Association, and the Shake It Up Australia Foundation.
You can learn more about Associate Professor Rentería's work and career in a 2025 interview with Genomic Psychiatry.
Research Skills
- Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS)
- Statistical Genetics & Polygenic Risk Scores
- Mendelian Randomisation
- Neuroimaging Genetics
- Machine Learning & AI in Health
- Digital Biomarkers
- Epidemiology & Real-World Evidence
- Science Policy
Area of Interest
Our lab works at the intersection of human genetics, computational biology, and digital health to understand what makes individuals susceptible to neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases — particularly Parkinson's disease, sleep disorders, depression, dementia, and self-harm behaviours. We use large-scale genomic datasets, genome-wide association analyses, polygenic risk scores, Mendelian randomisation, and wearable-derived digital biomarkers to identify the biological drivers of disease and translate these insights towards prediction, prevention, and personalised care.
Associate Professor Rentería is the Principal Investigator of the Australian Parkinson's Genetics Study (APGS), now the largest Parkinson's disease genetics cohort in Australia with more than 21,000 participants, including over 12,000 people living with Parkinson's disease. He co-founded and co-chairs the ENIGMA Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviours Working Group, a global neuroimaging consortium coordinating data from more than 70 research cohorts worldwide. He also co-leads the Monogenic Parkinson's Disease Australia Initiative (MonoPDAus), a national precision medicine effort funded by the Medical Research Future Fund.
Professional Associations
- International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
- International Society for Computational Biology
- International Society of Psychiatric Genetics
- Society for Biological Psychiatry
- World Sleep Society
- ENIGMA Consortium
- Global Parkinson's Genetics Program
- Latin American Genomics Consortium
Funding
- Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation, Australia
- National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia
- Medical Research Future Fund, Australia
- IMPACT Philantropy Perpetual Ltd, Australia
- Shake It Up Australia Foundation, Australia
- The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, USA
- National Institute of Mental Health, USA
- American Parkinson’s Disease Association, USA
- Alzheimer’s Association, USA
Publications
Cao F, McAloney K, Ogonowski N, García-Marín LM, Díaz-Torres S, Flores-Ocampo V, Ceja Z, Chafotaa F, Parker R, Ferguson M, Cicero RA, List-Armitage SE, Miller V, Campbell C, Sue CM, Kumar KR, Mellick GD, Martin NG, Rentería ME (2026) Insights from a cross-sectional population-based study of 10,929 Australians living with Parkinson's disease: risk factors, comorbidities, and sex differences The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2026.101816
Diaz-Torres S, Lee SSY., García-Marín LM, Campos AI, Lingham G, Ong JS, Mackey D, Burdon K, Hunter M, MacGregor S, Dong X, Gharahkhani P, & Renteria ME (2024). Uncovering novel genetic loci and biological pathways associated with age-related cataracts through GWAS meta-analysis, Nature Communications 15, 9116 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53212-6
Campos AI, Ingold N, Huang Y, Mitchell BL, Kho PF, Han X, García-Marín LM, Ong JS, 23andMe Research Team, Law MH, Yokoyama JS, Martin NG, Dong X, Cuellar-Partida G, MacGregor S, Aslibekyan S, Rentería ME, Discovery of genomic loci associated with sleep apnoea risk through multi-trait GWAS analysis with snoring. SLEEP (2023), zsac308, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsac308