Tony is a behavioural neuroscientist and medical researcher at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne. He is Research Lead of the Mental Health Mission and Head of the Epigenetics and Neural Plasticity Laboratory.
Tony investigates gene-environment interactions and experience-dependent plasticity in the healthy and diseased brain. The research includes models of specific neurological and psychiatric disorders involving cognitive and affective dysfunction, investigated at behavioural, cellular and molecular levels so as to identify pathogenic mechanisms and novel therapeutic targets.
The lab provided the first demonstration in any genetic animal model that environmental stimulation can be therapeutic. They explore how genes and the environment combine via experience-dependent plasticity in the healthy and diseased brain. This has led to new insights into gene-environment interactions in various brain disorders, including Huntington’s disease, depression, dementia, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. Recent discoveries extend to epigenetic inheritance and the microbiota-gut-brain axis as modulators of cognitive and affective function, and dysfunction.
He completed his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Sydney before being awarded a Nuffield Medical Fellowship at the University of Oxford. He subsequently held other research positions before returning to Australia on an NHMRC RD Wright Career Development Fellowship to establish a laboratory at the Florey Institute.
He has won other fellowships and awards, including an ARC FT3 Future Fellowship, NHMRC Senior and Principal Research Fellowships, and the British Council Eureka Prize.
He is a Fellow of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, Co-Chair of the International Brain Initiative, Co-Chair of the Australian Brain Alliance, and member of the National Committee for Brain and Mind, Australian Academy of Science.