Tatiane Yanes

Tatiane completed a Bachelor of Science (Genetics and Molecular Biology) at the Australian National University, and a Master of Genetic Counselling at Griffith University. While studying for her master's degree, Tatiane completed a placement at the National Institute of Health where she assisted in research assessing the impact of genomic testing and completed training as research genetic counsellor. Her time at the National Institute of Health sparked a love for genetic counselling research and in 2015 Tatiane moved to Sydney to complete a PhD at UNSW Sydney.

Recently, Tatiane submitted her PhD thesis where she assessed the psychological and behavioural impact of returning polygenic risk scores to women at increased risk of breast cancer. During her PhD, she was awarded a National Health and Medical Council (NHMRC) postgraduate scholarship, a National Breast Cancer Foundation scholarship and a Translational Cancer Research Network PhD top-up award. She also received multiple awards including best oral presentation at the 2017 International Meeting on Psychosocial Impact of Hereditary Cancer, and was a runner-up for best oral presentation at the 2018 Translational Cancer Research Network Symposium. On top of her research, Tatiane has also worked as a clinical and research genetic counsellor in Brisbane and Sydney.

In 2019 Tatiane returned to Brisbane and is now a postdoctoral research fellow at UQ Diamantina Institute. She continues to conduct research to support the safe implementation of polygenic risk scores into clinical practice including assessing health care professionals training needs, evaluating existing methods of communicating polygenic information, and assessing psychological and behavioural outcomes associated with receiving this information. She also recently developed a workshop to upskill genetic health professionals on the use of polygenic risk information to assess cancer risk. Given her expertise as a genetic counsellor and experience with polygenic risk scores, Tatiane has been invited to present at several national and international meetings including at the Familial Aspects of Cancer: Research and Practice, Kingscliff, Australia; the Australian Polygenic Risk Symposium, Sydney; and at the National Society of Genetic Counsellors annual conference, Salt Lake City, USA.