Sam Buckberry
Head, Epigenetics
BSc, BHlthSc, PhD
sam.buckberry@thekids.org.au
https://au.linkedin.com/in/sambuckberryDr Sam Buckberry is a genome biologist and bioinformatician who works within Professor Alex Brown's Indigenous Genomics group. His research focuses on improving the long-term health of Indigenous Australian populations by developing new community-specific knowledge and methods in precision medicine. Sam's approach integrates cutting-edge genomics and data science techniques with epidemiology and public health to improve chronic disease prediction, prevention, and treatment.
Sam has broad experience in molecular biology, bioinformatics, research computing and data science. He enjoys developing custom analysis frameworks for complex biological questions and data types. Sam has published widely in epigenetics and genomics, including high profile papers in journals including Cell Stem Cell, Nature and Nature Neuroscience.
Sam was an NHMRC postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Western Australia between 2016-19 and held a WA Department of Health Merit Award Grant for 2020-21.
Sam was awarded the 2019 Raine Research Prize for the best biomedical research paper by an early career researcher in WA. In 2020, he was one of four finalists for the Woodside Early Career Scientist of the Year as part of the WA Premier's Science Awards.
Projects
Kids Easy Breathing Study
As both bronchiolitis and bronchiectasis are diseases of the airway surface, we will comprehensively study the airway surface and factors affecting the airway surface in infants hospitalised with bronchiolitis.
October 2023
Published research
Early moderate prenatal alcohol exposure and maternal diet impact offspring DNA methylation across species
Alcohol consumption in pregnancy can affect genome regulation in the developing offspring but results have been contradictory. We employed a physiologically relevant murine model of short-term moderate prenatal alcohol exposure resembling common patterns of alcohol consumption in pregnancy in humans.
Future-proofing genomic data and consent management: a comprehensive review of technology innovations
Genomic information is increasingly used to inform medical treatments and manage future disease risks. However, any personal and societal gains must be carefully balanced against the risk to individuals contributing their genomic data. Expanding our understanding of actionable genomic insights requires researchers to access large global datasets to capture the complexity of genomic contribution to diseases.
Circulating epigenomic biomarkers correspond with kidney disease susceptibility in high-risk populations with type 2 diabetes mellitus
To investigate epigenomic indices of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) susceptibility among high-risk populations with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Transient naive reprogramming corrects hiPS cells functionally and epigenetically
Cells undergo a major epigenome reconfiguration when reprogrammed to human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS cells). However, the epigenomes of hiPS cells and human embryonic stem (hES) cells differ significantly, which affects hiPS cell function. These differences include epigenetic memory and aberrations that emerge during reprogramming, for which the mechanisms remain unknown.
Transient naive reprogramming corrects hiPS cells functionally and epigenetically
Cells undergo a major epigenome reconfiguration when reprogrammed to human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS cells). However, the epigenomes of hiPS cells and human embryonic stem (hES) cells differ significantly, which affects hiPS cell function. These differences include epigenetic memory and aberrations that emerge during reprogramming, for which the mechanisms remain unknown.
Education and Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science – Flinders University
- Bachelor of Health Science (Honours) – The University of Adelaide
- Doctor of Philosophy (Medicine) – The University of Adelaide
Awards/Honours
- 2020 - Woodside Early Career Scientist of the Year - WA Premiers Science Awards
- 2020 – WA Department of Health Merit Award
- 2019 - People’s Choice Award - Epigenetics Consortium of South Australia annual research meeting, Adelaide
- 2019 - Ana Africh Stem Cell Research Travel Scholarship
- 2019 – Raine Research Prize, Raine Medical Research Foundation
- 2016 – Best oral presentation, Australasian Genomic Technologies Association conference, Auckland NZ
- 2016 - NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development Grant Fellowship
- 2016 - NHMRC Peter Doherty Biomedical Early Career Fellowship (relinquished)
- 2015 - Y.W Loke Young Investigator Award, International Federation of Placenta Associations (IFPA) conference, Brisbane QLD
- 2015 - Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence, The University of Adelaide
2014 - Promega PhD Student Award, Lorne Genome Conference, Lorne VIC - 2012 - Healthy Development Adelaide & Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation PhD Scholarship
- 2011 - The Robinson Research Institute Petrucco Honours Scholarship
Active Collaborations
Epigenetics of stem cell reprogramming with Prof. Ryan Lister (Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research), Prof. Jose Polo (University of Adelaide) and Dr Xiaodong Ethan Liu (Westlake University, China).