John graduated with an honours medical degree from University College Cork in 2011. Following an internship, he commenced Basic Specialist Training (BST) in 2013 and graduated with his medical membership qualification (MRCPI) the same year. Having completed his BST posts, he was accepted onto the Higher Specialist Training (HST) programme for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2015. Having completed two years of this programme, he is now engaged in full-time research at APC Microbiome Ireland and University College Cork under the guidance of Professor Fergus Shanahan. His research interests include clinical nutrition and impact on health, the role of fibre in metabolism and microbial diversity, the microbiome and gastrointestinal disease states and investigative imaging in inflammatory bowel disease. He has presented at numerous events and national conferences and was awarded the Cork University Hospital SHO presentation of the year medal in 2015. He has been involved, as both first and contributing author, in multiple case reports, audit, poster presentations and other publications to date. Currently, he is investigating the impact of fibre supplementation on metabolic parameters of health, gut microbial diversity and general wellbeing in patients with established Crohns disease.
