Role
Principal Investigator and Chair in Food Systems Biology,
Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS)
Personal Interests
Travel, Foodie, craft-beer, seeing a live music gig at least once a week, a retired radio presenter
Research Interests
- Systems Biology
- Non-coding RNAs
- Endocrine disruptors
- Micro- and nonoplastics
- Racial differences in prostate cancer
- Space-Omics
- Epigenetics & addiction
- Genotype-phenotype toolkits
Research Summary
My laboratory works in the field of systems biology the objective of which is the study of biological systems, including genes, RNAs, proteins, metabolites and cells in a focused manner, and organs, organisms and populations in a broader context.
Areas of research focus include:
-
Studying the effects of man-made contaminants (e.g. microplastics, persistent organic pollutants, xenobiotics) on marine and human health
-
Studying prostate cancer in the context of racial differences and nutritional deficiency
-
Examining the impacts of long term space travel – specifically the effects of nutrition, torpor, space radiation and microgravity on hepatic and intestinal biology
-
Developing a rat model of opioid abuse to better understand the biological basis for substance abuse disorders and advance development of preventive strategies and more efficacious treatments
-
Developing a robust toolkit for better integration of Omics data sets into genotype-phenotype predictions.
-
Studying the role of noncoding RNAs in the development of cancer and metabolic diseases
Working with the group
I am open to PhD applications from individuals holding or expecting to hold at least a 2.1 degree (or equivalent) in the fields of computer science, bioinformatics, biochemistry, microbiology or marine biology.
A strategy for obtaining funding for a PhD is required.
Applicants should be interested in computational biology approaches, multi-omics data integration and systems and network biology.
Individuals interested in working in my group at Queen’s University Belfast are welcome to contact me to discuss ideas and/or possible collaborations
Positions of Employment/ Honorary Fellowships/Awards:
| Year | Role | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| 2020- Present | CTO | Altomics Datamation Ltd |
| 2019-Present | Fellow | Royal Society of Biology |
| 2019-Present | Academic Staff | Queen’s University Marine Laboratory |
| 2018-Present | Professor (Full) | School of Biological Sciences & Chair in Food Systems Biology, Institute for Global Food Security, QUB, N. Ireland, UK. |
| 2018-Present | Adjunct Professor | Department of Medicine, MUSC, Charleston, SC |
| 2016-2019 | Adjunct Professor | Grice Marine Laboratories, College of Charleston, SC, USA |
| 2016-2018 | Head | Laboratory for Marine Systems Biology, Hollings Marine Laboratory, SC, USA |
| 2015-2018 | Professor (Full) | Department of Public Health Sciences, MUSC, Charleston, SC, USA |
| 2014-2018 | Director | Center for Genomics Medicine, Bioinformatics, MUSC, Charleston, SC, USA |
| 2014-2018 | Professor (Full) | Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Charleston, SC, USA |
| 2008-2014 | Adjunct Professor | Bioinformatics & Medical Informatics Research Center (BMIRC) and Computational Science Research Center (CSRC), San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA |
| 2009-2013 | Associate Professor | Department of Medicine, UCSD, La Jolla, CA, USA |
| 2003-2009 | Assistant Professor | Department of Medicine, UCSD, La Jolla, CA |
| 2000-2013 | Founding Director | University of California San Diego (UCSD) Biomedical Genomics Facility, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA |
| 1998-2000 | Senior Scientist | Axys Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA; La Jolla, CA & San Francisco, CA, USA |
Editorial Positions - Current
| Year | Role | Title / Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 - Present | Special Issue Editor | Genetic Analysis of Animal Models to Understand the Genomic Architecture of Substance Use Disorders - Frontiers in Psychiatry/Psychopharmacology |
| 2020 - Present | Editorial Board | ACS ES&T Water |
| 2020 - Present | Special Issue Editor | Systems Analytics and Integration of Big Omics Data - Genes (Basel), MDPI |
| 2018 - Present | Editorial Board | Science of The Total Environment (STOTEN) |
| 2017 - Present | Editorial Board | Biotech (Formerly High-Throughput) (Basel), MDPI |
| 2017 - Present | Editorial Board | Genes (Basel), MDPI |
| 2017 - Present | Associate Editor | Psychopharmacology (specialty section of Frontiers in Psychiatry – focus on Big Data) |
| 2014 - Present | Editorial Board | Journal of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Obesity (J SciMed Central) |
| 2007 - Present | Editorial Board | ‘Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics’ (Taylor and Francis) |
| 1998 - Present | Editorial Board | ‘Pharmacogenomics’ (PG) (ISSN 1462-2416) |
Education
-
B.Sc.(Hons) in Microbiology, 1985-1989
National University of Ireland, Galway
-
Ph.D. Microbiology/Molecular Biology (Prof. Frank Gannon), 1989-1993
National University of Ireland, Galway
-
Visiting Graduate Student, (Dr. Frank Talamantes, PI), 1992
University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
-
Post-doctoral Research Fellow Molecular Biology (Dr. Frank Lee, PI), 1993-1994
DNAX Research Inst. (MERCK), Palo Alto, CA
-
Post-doctoral Research Fellow Molecular Biology/Bioinformatics (Dr. J. Fernando Bazan, PI), 1994-1998
DNAX Research Inst. (MERCK), Palo Alto, CA