World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

Overview

Colm McDonald is affiliated with the National University of Ireland, Galway. Their research focuses primarily on medicine and neuroscience, with major contributions in psychiatry and mental health, cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology, radiology, nuclear medicine and imaging, and genetics.

McDonald's work encompasses several main research topics, including:

  • Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Functional brain connectivity studies
  • Bipolar disorder and treatment
  • Advanced neuroimaging techniques and applications
  • Tryptophan and brain disorders
  • Mental health research topics
  • Stress responses and cortisol

Frequent co-authors in McDonald's publications include:

  • Brian Hallahan
  • Dara M. Cannon
  • Gary Donohoe
  • Derek W. Morris
  • Laurena Holleran

Notable publication venues where McDonald's work has appeared are:

  • Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine
  • Biological Psychiatry
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • Human Brain Mapping
  • Schizophrenia Bulletin

Selected significant papers authored or co-authored by McDonald include:

  • What we learn about bipolar disorder from large-scale neuroimaging: Findings and future directions from the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group, 2020, Human Brain Mapping
  • Greater male than female variability in regional brain structure across the lifespan, 2020, Human Brain Mapping
  • DNA methylation meta-analysis reveals cellular alterations in psychosis and markers of treatment-resistant schizophrenia, 2021, eLife
  • Longitudinal Structural Brain Changes in Bipolar Disorder: A Multicenter Neuroimaging Study of 1232 Individuals by the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group, 2021, Biological Psychiatry
  • A meta-analysis of deep brain structural shape and asymmetry abnormalities in 2,833 individuals with schizophrenia compared with 3,929 healthy volunteers via the ENIGMA Consortium, 2021, Human Brain Mapping

McDonald has published extensively, contributing to a total of 132 papers in medicine and 59 in neuroscience. Research subfields are strongly represented by psychiatry and mental health with 73 publications, followed by cognitive neuroscience with 35.

Best Publications

  • Biological insights from 108 schizophrenia-associated genetic loci

    Stephan Ripke;Stephan Ripke;Benjamin M. Neale;Benjamin M. Neale;Aiden Corvin;James T. R. Walters

  • Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain

    Verneri Anttila;Verneri Anttila;Brendan Bulik-Sullivan;Brendan Bulik-Sullivan;Hilary K. Finucane;Raymond K. Walters;Raymond K. Walters

  • Modeling Linkage Disequilibrium Increases Accuracy of Polygenic Risk Scores

    Bjarni J. Vilhjálmsson;Jian Yang;Hilary K. Finucane;Alexander Gusev

  • Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders

    Phil H. Lee;Verneri Anttila;Hyejung Won;Yen-Chen A. Feng

  • Subcortical brain volume abnormalities in 2028 individuals with schizophrenia and 2540 healthy controls via the ENIGMA consortium

    T. G M van Erp;D. P. Hibar;J. M. Rasmussen;D. C. Glahn

  • Contribution of copy number variants to schizophrenia from a genome-wide study of 41,321 subjects

    Christian R Marshall;Daniel P Howrigan;Daniel P Howrigan;Daniele Merico;Bhooma Thiruvahindrapuram

  • Common genetic variants influence human subcortical brain structures.

    Derrek P. Hibar;Jason L. Stein;Jason L. Stein;Miguel E. Renteria;Alejandro Arias-Vasquez

  • The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex

    Katrina L. Grasby;Neda Jahanshad;Jodie N. Painter;Lucía Colodro-Conde

  • The ENIGMA Consortium: large-scale collaborative analyses of neuroimaging and genetic data

    Paul M. Thompson;Jason L. Stein;Sarah E. Medland;Derrek P. Hibar

  • Genomic Dissection of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia, Including 28 Subphenotypes

    Douglas M. Ruderfer;Stephan Ripke;Stephan Ripke;Stephan Ripke;Andrew McQuillin;James Boocock

  • Cortical abnormalities in bipolar disorder : An MRI analysis of 6503 individuals from the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group

    D P Hibar;L T Westlye;L T Westlye;N T Doan;N T Doan;N Jahanshad

  • Partitioning heritability of regulatory and cell-type-specific variants across 11 common diseases

    Alexander Gusev;S. Hong Lee;Gosia Trynka;Hilary Finucane

  • Identification of common variants associated with human hippocampal and intracranial volumes

    Jason L Stein;Sarah E Medland;Sarah E Medland;Alejandro Arias Vasquez;Alejandro Arias Vasquez;Derrek P Hibar

  • Widespread white matter microstructural differences in schizophrenia across 4322 individuals : results from the ENIGMA Schizophrenia DTI Working Group

    S. Kelly;S. Kelly;N. Jahanshad;A. Zalesky;P. Kochunov

  • Cold exposure and winter mortality from ishaemic heart disease cerebrovascular disease respiratory disease and all causes in warm and cold regions of Europe.

    WR Keatinge;GC Donaldson;K Bucher;G Jendritsky

  • A developmental model for similarities and dissimilarities between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

    Robin M. Murray;Pak Sham;Jim Van Os;Jolanta Zanelli

  • Subcortical volumetric abnormalities in bipolar disorder

    D. P. Hibar;L. T. Westlye;L. T. Westlye;T. G. M. van Erp;J. Rasmussen

  • Association of genetic risks for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with specific and generic brain structural endophenotypes

    Colm McDonald;Edward T. Bullmore;Pak C. Sham;Xavier Chitnis

  • Erratum: Subcortical brain volume abnormalities in 2028 individuals with schizophrenia and 2540 healthy controls via the ENIGMA consortium (Molecular Psychiatry (2015) DOI:10.1038/mp.2015.63)

    T. G.M. Van Erp;D. P. Hibar;J. M. Rasmussen;D. C. Glahn

  • Genome wide meta-analysis identifies genomic relationships, novel loci, and pleiotropic mechanisms across eight psychiatric disorders

    Lee Ph;Anttila;Won H

Frequent Co-Authors

Robin M. Murray
Robin M. Murray King's College London
Dara M. Cannon
Dara M. Cannon University of Galway
Elvira Bramon
Elvira Bramon University College London
Brian Hallahan
Brian Hallahan University of Galway
Gary Donohoe
Gary Donohoe University of Galway
Ingrid Agartz
Ingrid Agartz University of Oslo
Derek W. Morris
Derek W. Morris University of Galway
Ole A. Andreassen
Ole A. Andreassen Oslo University Hospital
Erik G. Jönsson
Erik G. Jönsson University of Oslo
René S. Kahn
René S. Kahn Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

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