Dr Eleanor Conole

I joined Lady Margaret Hall in 2024 as a Junior Research Fellow in Applied Artificial Intelligence. My research integrates neuroscience and genomics to investigate the epigenetics of brain ageing and disease. I work across large-scale longitudinal cohort data (UK Biobank, Generation Scotland, Lothian Birth Cohorts, Stratifying Longitudinal Resilience and Depression Cohort, and Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort) using machine learning to identify biomarkers of brain ageing.

I previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh investigating neuroimaging approaches to study the neurobiology of age-related cognitive change. Before this, my doctoral research (Wellcome Trust Translational Neuroscience PhD) investigated chronic inflammation and brain ageing across the lifecourse, examining associations between chronic inflammation, brain structure, and cognition.

I am on the advisory panel for the Wellcome Trust Brain and Behavioural Sciences Early-Career Grant Panel, and also serve on the Molecular Epidemiology Group UK (MEG-UK) committee and Alan Turing Institute Clinical AI Special Interest Group. 

My research interests are in the application of AI to address clinical problems and the development of peripheral-based biomarkers to stratify disease and monitor health trajectories. I work in the field of neuroimaging-genomics, with a specialist interest in the immune mechanisms of accelerated brain ageing. My current research is set across different population cohorts looking at the application of AI to multi-omics and neuroimaging. 

At Oxford I teach across Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences, and Medicine, delivering tutorials in:

• Biochemistry: Cellular Biochemistry
• Biomedical Sciences: Genes and Molecules
• Medicine: BM Part I Biochemistry and Medical Genetics; Part II Motor Systems; Part II Psychology for Medicine; Part III Cognitive Neuroscience

I have also acted casual lecturer for Introduction to Machine Learning and Bayesian Statistics for Bioscientists (Oxford, 2024–2025). Previously, I lectured on Neurobiology of Cognition in Health and Disease (Edinburgh, 2023–2024) and taught on ML and data science courses in the Edinburgh Medical School (2020–2022).

Conole, E. L. S., Robertson, J. A., Smith, H. M., et al. (2025). Epigenetic clocks and DNA methylation biomarkers of brain health and disease. Nature Reviews Neurology, 21, 411–421.

Moodie, J. E., Buchanan, C., Furtjes, A., Conole, E. L. S., et al. (2025). Brain maps of general cognitive function and spatial correlations with neurobiological cortical profiles. Translational Psychiatry, 15, 146.

Conole, E. L. S. (2024). Chronic inflammation and brain health: The case for early monitoring. Neurology, 103(2).

McKinnon, K., Conole, E. L. S., Vaher, K., et al. (2024). Epigenetic scores derived in saliva are associated with gestational age at birth. Clinical Epigenetics, 16, 84.

Baranyi, G., Buchanan, C. R., Conole, E. L. S., et al. (2024). Life-course neighbourhood deprivation and brain structure in older adults: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. Molecular Psychiatry, 29, 3483–3494.

Thng, G., Shen, X., Stolicyn, A., Conole, E. L. S., et al. (2024). A comprehensive hierarchical comparison of structural connectomes in major depressive disorder cases versus controls in two large population samples. Psychological Medicine, 1–12.

Jaggi, A., Conole, E. L. S., Raisi-Estabragh, Z., et al. (2024). A structural heart–brain axis mediates the association between cardiovascular risk and cognitive function. Imaging Neuroscience, 2, 1–18.

Conole, E. L. S., et al. (2023). Immuno-epigenetic signature derived in saliva associates with the encephalopathy of prematurity and perinatal inflammatory disorders. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 110, 322–338.

McCartney, D. L., Hillary, R. F., Conole, E. L. S., et al. (2022). Blood-based epigenome-wide analyses of cognitive abilities. Genome Biology, 23(1), 26.

Conole, E. L. S., Stevenson, A. J., Muñoz, S., et al. (2021). DNA methylation and protein markers of chronic inflammation and their associations with brain and cognitive aging. Neurology, 97(23), e2340.

Green, C., Shen, X., Conole, E. L. S., et al. (2021). Structural brain correlates of serum and epigenetic markers of inflammation in major depressive disorder. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 92, 39–48.

Full publication list: Google Scholar