Eibhlís O’Connor is a Registered Human Nutritionist (RNutr with the UK Association for Nutrition), Lecturer in Human Nutrition and Course Director of the BSc. Food Science and Health programme in the Department of Biological Sciences, UL. She has a BSc and PhD in Nutritional Sciences from University College Cork (UCC). Her research interests include the role of novel, vitamin-K dependent proteins in health and disease, and specifically those involved in bone metabolism, cognition, glucose regulation and cardiovascular health. She also has a keen interest in how diet can impact and modulate the gut microbiota and thus impact health in specific population groups. Eibhlís lead a US Allen Foundation funded project analysing dietary and microbiota-derived vitamin K and its relationship with inflammation and cognition in older individuals and was National Coordinator of the Malnutrition in the Elderly (MaNuEL) Knowledge Hub, a collaborative project involving 22 partners across 7 European Countries (under the JPI HDHL initiative). Eibhlís is a Faculty Member of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, (APC) UCC and is involved in a number of interventions investigating how diet can modulate the gut microbiota for health in specific population groups. She is the lead UL PI and coordinator of the ImmunoMet and FIBREMET projects, respectively (both Dept. Agriculture, Food and the Marine funded) which are collaborative projects (with APC, UCD and Teagasc) designed to investigate the effect of dietary manipulation on microbiota diversity for controlling immune function and metabolism in diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease cohorts. 

Publications

McCann A, Jeffery I.B, Ferland G, Ouliass B, Fu X, Booth S.L, O’Toole P.W, O’Connor E.M. (2019) Exploratory analysis of covariation of microbiota-derived vitamin K and cognition in older adults. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 110(6):1404-1415. doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz220

Tran T.T.T, Cousin F.J, Lynch D.B, Menon R, Brulc J, Brown J.R.M, O’Herlihy E, Butto L.F, Power K, Jeffery I.B, O’Connor E.M, O'Toole P.W. (2019) Prebiotic supplementation in frail older people affects specific gut microbiota taxa but not global diversity. Microbiome 7:39. doi: 10.1186/s40168-019-0654-1

Ntemiri A, Ribiere C, Stanton C, Ross R.P, O’Connor E.M, O’Toole P.W. (2019) Retention of microbiota diversity by lactose-free milk in a mouse model of elderly gut microbiota. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 67(7), 2098–2112 doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.8b06414

O’Keeffe M, Kelly M, O'Herlihy E, O'Toole P.W, Kearney P.M, Timmons S, O'Shea E, Hickson M, Stanton C, Rolland Y, Sulmont Rossé C,  Issanchou S, Maître I, Stelmach-Mardas M, Nagel G, Flechtner-Mors M, Wolters M, Hebestreit A, De Groot L, Van de Rest O, The R, Peyron M.A, Dardevet D, Papet I, Schindler K, Streicher M, Torbahn G, Kiesswetter E, Visser M, Volkert D, O'Connor E.M. (2019) Potentially Modifiable Determinants of Malnutrition in Older Adults: a Systematic Review. Clinical Nutrition S0261-5614(18)32575-5. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2018.12.007

Kiely A, Ferland G, Bouchra O, O’Toole P.W., Purtill H, O’Connor E.M. (2018) Vitamin K status and inflammation are associated with cognition in older Irish adults. Nutritional Neuroscience 19:1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/1028415X.2018.1536411

Wolters, M., Volkert, D., Streicher, M., Kiesswetter, E., Torbahn, G., O'Connor, E.M., O'Keeffe, M., Kelly, M., O'Herlihy, E., O'Toole, P.W., Timmons, S., O'Shea, E., Kearney, P., Van Zwienen-Pot, J., Visser, M., Maitre, I., Van Wymelbeke, V., Sulmont-Rossé, C., Nagel, G., Flechtner-Mors, M., Goisser, S., Teh, R. & Hebestreit, A. (2018 - online). Prevalence of malnutrition using harmonized definitions in older adults from different settings – A MaNuEL study. Clinical Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2018.10.020

Bardon, L., Streicher, M., Corish, C., Clarke, M., Power, L., Kenny, R., O'Connor, D., Laird, E. & O'Connor, E. M., Visser, M., Volkert, D. & Gibney, E. (2018). Predictors of incident malnutrition in older Irish adults from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) cohort- a MaNuEL study. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. gly225. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly225

O'Connor EM, Durack E (2017) Osteocalcin: the extra-skeletal role of a vitamin K-dependent protein in glucose metabolism. Journal of Nutrition & Intermediary Metabolism 7:8-13. doi.org/10.1016/j.jnim.2017.01.001

Claesson MJ, Jeffery IB, Conde S, Power SE, O’Connor EM, Cusack S, Coakley M, O’Sullivan O, Ross RP, Stanton C, Fitzgerald G, O’Toole PW (2012) Gut microbiota composition correlated with diet and health in the elderly. Nature 488(7410):178-87. doi: 10.1038/nature11319