Researcher

Dr Daniel Lin

My Expertise

Psychiatric Genetics, Epigenomics, Eye-Tracking Scan, Clinical Heterogeneity, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Suicide Prevention and Intervention, Aggressive Behaviours

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Neurogenetics, Statistical and quantitative genetics, Public health, Behavioural epidemiology, Environmental epidemiology, Machine learning

Biography

Dr Lin, currently serving as an adjunct associate professor at UNSW, is a trained psychiatrist with a PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University and received his postdoc research training at Duke University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the USA. With his cross-disciplinary training in statistics and psychiatry, Dr Lin has conducted epidemiological research focusing on intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing mental...view more

Dr Lin, currently serving as an adjunct associate professor at UNSW, is a trained psychiatrist with a PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University and received his postdoc research training at Duke University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the USA. With his cross-disciplinary training in statistics and psychiatry, Dr Lin has conducted epidemiological research focusing on intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing mental health. Dr Lin's extensive research experience includes a wide range of methodologies, such as genetic association studies, clinical trials, eye-tracking studies, and population surveys. He has been actively involved in 18 competitive grants, including a multi-centre clinical trial of adolescent suicide intervention. His total funding support has exceeded $19 million (AUD). Dr Lin's research findings have been published in high-impact journals such as The Lancet and JAMA Pediatrics. 70% of his scientific outputs come from international collaborations. His long-term career goal is to establish an integrative epidemiology program that combines clinical, experimental, and population data to translate research findings into clinical or public health practices.


My Qualifications

Education and training positions

Visiting Fellowship, Autism and Neurodevelopment Program at University of California, San Francisco, California, USA, 7/2011-9/2011

Resident in Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan (2008-2012)

Post-doctoral fellow in Molecular Genomics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, U.S.A. (2006-2007)

Post-doctoral fellow in Statistical Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A. (2004-2006)

PhD in Mental Health (with a focus on Genetic Epidemiology), Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. (2005)

- PhD dissertation title: Parsing the Genetic Underpinnings of Bipolar Disorder by Age of Onset

MHS in Mental Health (with a focus on Psychiatric Epidemiology), Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. (2002)

MD National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan (1998)


My Research Activities

Title

Description

Timeline

Contact Person/ Research team

comments

A Multi-Site Study to Compare the Outcomes of Psychiatric Treatment of Suicidal Adolescents in Different Treatment Settings (USA)

The purpose of this clinical trial is to evaluate the treatment effects of a novel outpatient-based treatment program compared with the inpatient treatment pathway for adolescents with suicidality

2019-2024

Daniel Lin

Our team is currently seeking additional 2-year funding support in lieu of COVID-19 pandemic.

A Multi-Site, Non-Intervention Study to Compare the Outcomes of Psychiatric Treatment of Suicidal Adolescents in Different Treatment Settings

The purpose of this clinical trial is to evaluate the treatment effects of the telemedicine intervention program for adolescents with suicidality.

Ongoing

Daniel Lin

Completed - planning to submit the report for publication in 2022.

Comorbidities associated with polygenic loadings in autism.

Through collaborating with University of Queensland, we are aiming to determine which clusters of comorbidity conditions may correlate with polygenic loadings in autism.

Ongoing

Daniel Lin

Collaboration with University of Queensland

Aggressive behaviors at paediatric psychiatric patients

Collaborating with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre in the USA to study the predictive models for aggressive behaviors

Ongoing

Daniel Lin

ILP student project

Bullying-victimization in neurodevelopmental disorder

Collaborating with Swedish researchers to identify risk factors associated with bullying-victimization in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, with a focus on autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using the national survey data.

Completed

Daniel Lin

The manuscript is current under review at JAMA Pediatrics

Exploring the role of microRNA in metabolic adverse effects associated with antipsychotics

Supervising the psychiatry registrar to conduct a pilot study that aims to identify the relationship between microRNAs and adverse metabolic effects associated with second-generation antipsychotics in individuals with a first psychotic episode.

In preparation

Daniel Lin

Psychiatry registrar project

Evaluating the role of visual attention bias in emotion dysregulation in young children

The goal of this study is to determine how eye gaze fixation patterns can be used to predict severity of emotion dysregulation (ED) and examine whether social function moderates the relationship between visual attention bias and the severity of ED.

In preparation

Daniel Lin

Honours student project

Co-designing an implementation strategy for a youth suicide prevention digital health intervention in hospitals: A scoping study.

The goal of this study is to investigate the acceptability and feasibility of digital suicide intervention programs from the perspectives of clinicians and patients/families in order to co-design an effective digital suicide intervention framework.

In preparation

Michelle Torok (Black Dog Institute)

 

A Digital Solution to Address the Mental Health and Financial Impacts of the Pandemic for Children and Their Parents in the First 2000 Days.

The project aims to evaluate whether the digital tool can facilitate the evaluation of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on mental health and financial stress.

Ongoing

Valsa Eapen

 

Time trends of social cognitive development of children

The project aims to compare the trajectories of social cognitive developments of two cohorts before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ongoing

James John

 

Physiological and neural synchronicity in father-child rough and tumble play

This goal of this project is to identify the characteristics of physiological (heart rate variability and electrodermal activity) and neural synchrony (measured with brain region-specific activations) in father-child dyad in the one-on-one interactive game.

In preparation

Jennifer StGeorge (University of New Castle

PhD thesis project

AI clinical project: predicting suicide risk using machine learning algorithms

This UNSW honours student project aims to evaluate how machine learning algorithms (e.g., random forest classification) can predict either suicide risk or treatment responses for suicidality.

In preparation

Daniel Lin#

Honours student project

The impact of maternal birth trauma on early neurodevelopmental outcomes of children

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effect of perinatal counseling on postnatal maternal psychological wellbeing and early neurodevelopmental outcomes of children

In preparation

Renea Makouk

Collaboration with PIMHS

Western Sydney Heatwave Mental Health Study

The goal of this study is to quantify the effect of heatwaves on the number of mental disorder presentations to emergency departments in SWSLHD.

In preparation

Matthew Barton

Psychiatry registrar study

Co-designing a neurodevelopmental assessment scale

The goal of this study is to explore the patterns of data collected using various assessment scales to re-design an integrative assessment framework.

Ongoing

Valsa Eapen

PhD thesis project

The role of socio-economic factors in access to healthcare services for children with neurodevelopmental disorders

The goal of this study is to systemically evaluate how socioeconomic and cultural factors might contribute to challenges and enablers for healthcare support for families of children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Ongoing

Valsa Eapen

PhD thesis project

Genetics of sleep disturbances in children with autism

The goal of this study is to explore genetic factors associated with sleep quality and melatonin levels of children on autism spectrum.

Ongoing

Daniel Lin/Valsa Eapen

 

 

 


My Research Supervision


Supervision keywords


Areas of supervision

Psychiatric Clinical Research

Epidemiology of Mental Disorders

Quantitative Genomics or Epigenomics

Epidemiology and Public Health Research

Eye-tracking Research

Suicide Prevention and Intervention

Research on Violence


Currently supervising

  1. PhD student (co-supervisor): Syeda Ishra Azim, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Australia, 2021 - present
  2. PhD student (co-supervisor): Raisa Islam (School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Australia), 2021 - present
  3. PhD student (co-supervisor): Elham Zolfaghari (School of Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia), 2021- present
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