University of Exeter Medical School

Dr. Nicholas Clifton

Dr. Nicholas Clifton

Senior Research Fellow

 N.Clifton@exeter.ac.uk

 RILD Building 

 

University of Exeter Medical School, RILD Building, RD&E Hospital Wonford, Barrack Road, Exeter, EX2 5DW, UK

Overview

Dr Nicholas Clifton is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Exeter Medical School funded by a Career Development Award from the Medical Research Council. He leads research focused on patterns of gene expression and their association with psychiatric disorders. He uses tissue- or cell-specific RNA sequencing and ribosome profiling to track expression dynamics across development and apply these data to questions about genetic risk through bioinformatics.

Dr Clifton has a background in Neuroscience, which he studied at the University of Nottingham before undertaking a Wellcome Trust Integrative Neuroscience PhD in the Neuroscience & Mental Health Research Institute at Cardiff University. He went on to take up an Early-Career Research Fellowship and a Research Fellowship at Cardiff before acquiring his Career Development Award.

Qualifications

  • Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • PhD Integrative Neuroscience, Cardiff University
  • MSci Hons Neuroscience, University of Nottingham

Research group links

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Research

Research interests

Dr Clifton studies how genetic risk factors for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia influence biological systems in the brain as it develops. The goal of his current research is to understand when and where locally translated synaptic genes contribute to susceptibility to schizophrenia.

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Publications

Journal articles

Clifton N (In Press). Enrichment of the local synaptic translatome for genetic risk associated with schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder. Biological Psychiatry
Clifton N, Wellard N, Rees E, Thomas K, Hall J (In Press). The association of hippocampal long-term potentiation-induced gene expression with genetic risk for psychosis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Clifton N, Schulmann A, Holmans P, O'Donovan M, Vawter M (In Press). The relationship between case-control differential gene expression from brain tissue and genetic associations in schizophrenia. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics Abstract.
Sperandeo A, Tamburini C, Noakes Z, de la Fuente DC, Keefe F, Petter O, Plumbly W, Clifton NE, Li M, Peall KJ, et al (2022). Cortical neuronal hyperexcitability and synaptic changes in <i>SGCE</i> mutation-positive myoclonus dystonia. Brain, 146(4), 1523-1541. Abstract.
Clifton NE, Bosworth ML, Haan N, Rees E, Holmans PA, Wilkinson LS, Isles AR, Collins MO, Hall J (2022). Developmental disruption to the cortical transcriptome and synaptosome in a model of <i>SETD1A</i> loss-of-function. Human Molecular Genetics, 31(18), 3095-3106. Abstract.
Moon AL, Clifton NE, Wellard N, Thomas KL, Hall J, Brydges NM (2022). Social interaction following prepubertal stress alters prefrontal gene expression associated with cell signalling and oligodendrocytes. Translational Psychiatry, 12(1). Abstract.
Clifton NE, Collado-Torres L, Burke EE, Pardinas AF, Harwood JC, Di Florio A, Walters JTR, Owen MJ, O'Donovan MC, Weinberger DR, et al (2021). Developmental Profile of Psychiatric Risk Associated with Voltage-Gated Cation Channel Activity. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY, 90(6), 399-408.  Author URL.
Clifton NE, Rees E, Holmans PA, Pardiñas AF, Harwood JC, Di Florio A, Kirov G, Walters JTR, O’Donovan MC, Owen MJ, et al (2021). Genetic association of FMRP targets with psychiatric disorders. Molecular Psychiatry, 26(7), 2977-2990. Abstract.
Notter T, Schalbetter SM, Clifton NE, Mattei D, Richetto J, Thomas K, Meyer U, Hall J (2021). Neuronal activity increases translocator protein (TSPO) levels. MOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY, 26(6), 2025-2037.  Author URL.
Clifton NE, Thomas KL, Wilkinson LS, Hall J, Trent S (2020). FMRP and CYFIP1 at the Synapse and Their Role in Psychiatric Vulnerability. Complex Psychiatry, 6(1-2), 5-19.
Morgan SE, Seidlitz J, Whitaker KJ, Romero-Garcia R, Clifton NE, Scarpazza C, van Amelsvoort T, Marcelis M, van Os J, Donohoe G, et al (2019). Cortical patterning of abnormal morphometric similarity in psychosis is associated with brain expression of schizophrenia-related genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 116(19), 9604-9609. Abstract.  Author URL.
Clifton NE, Hannon E, Harwood JC, Di Florio A, Thomas KL, Holmans PA, Walters JTR, O’Donovan MC, Owen MJ, Pocklington AJ, et al (2019). Dynamic expression of genes associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder across development. Translational Psychiatry, 9(1). Abstract.
Clifton NE, Trent S, Thomas KL, Hall J (2019). Regulation and Function of Activity-Dependent Homer in Synaptic Plasticity. Complex Psychiatry, 5(3), 147-161. Abstract.
Sykes L, Clifton NE, Hall J, Thomas KL (2018). Regulation of the Expression of the Psychiatric Risk Gene &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Cacna1c&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt; during Associative Learning. Complex Psychiatry, 4(3), 149-157. Abstract.
Hall J, Clifton NE, Thomas KL (2018). The effect of ketamine on the consolidation and extinction of contextual fear memory. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY, 32(2), 156-162.  Author URL.
Clifton NE, Cameron D, Trent S, Sykes LH, Thomas KL, Hall J (2017). Hippocampal Regulation of Postsynaptic Density Homer1 by Associative Learning. NEURAL PLASTICITY, 2017  Author URL.
Clifton NE, Pocklington AJ, Scholz B, Rees E, Walters JTR, Kirov G, O'Donovan MC, Owen MJ, Wilkinson LS, Thomas KL, et al (2017). Schizophrenia copy number variants and associative learning. Molecular Psychiatry, 22(2), 178-182. Abstract.
Clifton NE, Morisot N, Girardon S, Millan MJ, Loiseau F (2013). Enhancement of social novelty discrimination by positive allosteric modulators at metabotropic glutamate 5 receptors: adolescent administration prevents adult-onset deficits induced by neonatal treatment with phencyclidine. PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY, 225(3), 579-594.  Author URL.

Conferences

Richardson P, Reddaway J, Clifton N, Thomas K (2022). A novel, high throughput pipeline for automated microglia morphology classification.  Author URL.
Meeson N, Clifton N, Thomas K, Hall J (2019). EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCHIZOPHRENIA RISK GENES AND ADULT HIPPOCAMPAL PLASTICITY.  Author URL.
Clifton N, Rees E, Holmans P, Walters J, O'Donovan M, Owen M, Hall J, Pocklington A (2019). THE ASSOCIATION OF FRAGILE X MENTAL RETARDATION PROTEIN TARGETS WITH PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS.  Author URL.
Morisot N, Clifton NE, Loiseau F, Millan MJ (2012). Positive allosteric modulation of metabotropic glutamate 5 receptors prevents and reverses social discrimination deficits in rats.  Author URL.

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Supervision / Group

Postdoctoral researchers

  • Ellie Hendy

Postgraduate researchers

  • Elle Mawson (Cardiff University)
  • Freya Shepherd (Cardiff University)
  • Kamile Tamusauskaite

Research Technicians

  • Marty Frith
  • Kirtikesav Salem Saravanaraj

Alumni

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