Dr Jodi Thomas

Dr Jodi Thomas is a postdoctoral researcher in the Brain and Mental Health Program. With a multidisciplinary background, her research lies at the intersection of neuroscience, behaviour, and genetics. Her current work focuses on identifying and understanding genetic and environmental influences—and their interplay—on brain health. In particular, her research focuses on depression and she uses genome-wide genotype, phenotype and environmental data from large cohort datasets such as the Australian Genetics of Depression Study. Jodi has a particular interest in sex differences as well as the impacts of climate change.

Jodi’s background is in Neuroscience and Zoology, completing a PhD at James Cook University in 2022. Here, she studied the neurobiological and behavioural effects of climate change on a squid using live animal experiments, pharmacological tools, and transcriptomic analyses. Her previous research investigated the neuroendocrine and molecular mechanisms driving socially-induced female-to-male sex change in fish.