Biography
Kieran McGourty is currently a lecturer in the Chemical Sciences department at the University of Limerick (UL). Kieran undertook his undergraduate studies at UL, in Industrial Biochemistry, where he worked with Dr. Jakki Cooney and Dr. Todd Kagawa. In 2006, motivated by these experiences, he went on to attain a Wellcome Trust funded PhD working with Prof. David Holden FRS, Imperial College London, studying the molecular basis of infection. During this time, Kieran published several high impact papers on the intracellular interaction of Salmonella Typhimurium with the host before changing field from cellular microbiology to cell biology.
Kieran took a post-doctoral research position in 2012 with Dr. Emmanuel Boucrot at University College London (UCL), with a primary research focus on the cell cycle and extracellular matrix (ECM) biology. Kieran's work here resulted in an extensive study into how ECM interaction evoke specific intracellular signalling profiles in quiescent cells. These findings are currently in preparation for publication.
Kieran's research aims to understand the signals that govern cell behaviour in the niche, especially the intestinal, muscular and epidermal niche. Kieran employs a number of high-throughput techniques to achieve this including; transcriptomics, phosphoproteomics, antibody signalling protein arrays and high content imaging, in addition to standard biochemical techniques.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcgourtykieran
https://twitter.com/KieranMcGourty @kieranmcgourty
https://twitter.com/biosciber @biosciber
Research Interests
Kieran is one of the founding groups within the Bernal BioSciBER lab research space. The BioSciBER lab aims to carry out interdisciplinary research at the interface of Biomedical Engineering, Cell Biology and Microfluidics. They hope to reference in vivo systems and use that knowledge to inform in vitro experimentation and medical device design in areas such as the circulatory system, stem cell niche reconstitution, blood brain barrier research and tissue mechano-characterisation.
Specifically, Kieran's group aims to fuse biomedical engineering, ECM and cell biology to reconstitute the stem cell tissue niche in vitro by referencing and endeavouring to understand the in vivo system with a particular focus on the intestinal, muscular and epidermal niche.
Specific Research Areas
- Stem cell differentiation
- Stem cell niche
- Extracellular matrix biology
- Cell cycle
- Intracellular trafficking
- Cell signalling
- Infection and immunity
- Microbiome
- Proteomics, transcriptomics, pathway analysis
- Microscopy, especially high throughput imaging and confocal microscopy
@kieranmcgourty
Professional Activities
Award
- 2016 - Gordon research conference poster winner
- 2010 - Best PhD talk winner
Education
- 2007 Imperial College London - PhD
- 2006 Imperial College London - Masters by research
- 2001 University of Limerick - BSc (Hons)
Committee
- Ethics Committee Member UL,
Employment
- Pfizer, GE Healthcare, University College Cork, Imperial College London, University College London, University of Limerick - Various
Language
- French