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October 3, 2016
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October 11, 2016
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Webpage:http://www.medicine.tcd.ie/research/researchers/padraic-fallon.php

Research Field
  • infectious disease and the immune system
My WorkResearch in Fallon group involves two overlapping translational immunology themes:
i. The use of mouse models, transgenic and mutant strains, to study basic mechanisms of inflammatory diseases and helminth immunity.
ii. Immune phenotyping of patients with inflammatory diseases, such as atopic dermatitis and pulmonary fibrosis.

Research aims to elucidate new mechanism of modulation of immunity that can alter inflammatory processors and have therapeutic potential. The main diseases addressed are fibrotic disorders, allergic lung and skin inflammation and inflammatory bowel disease.
Research in the group has made fundamental mechanistic translational research discoveries, selected examples from 2016 publications:

Filaggrin inhibits generation of CD1a neolipid antigens by house dust mite-derived phospholipase.
Jarrett et al. Sci Transl Med. 2016 8:325ra18.

Spontaneous atopic dermatitis is mediated by innate immunity, with the secondary lung inflammation of the atopic march requiring adaptive immunity.
Saunders et al. Allergy Clin Immunol. 2016 137:482-91.

The helminth T2 RNase ω1 promotes metabolic homeostasis in an IL-33- and group 2 innate lymphoid cell-dependent mechanism.
Hams E et al. FASEB J. 2016 30:824-35.

Group 2 innate lymphoid cells license dendritic cells to potentiate memory TH2 cell responses.
Halim et al. Nature Immunology. 2016 17:57-64.
Outline of Potential Research projectsPhD research projects will be in the broad area of immunology. The projects will involve the use of mouse or cell based models and, as appropriate, patient studies to elucidate new mechanisms of modulation of immunity that can regulate inflammation in relevant diseases of man.

While projects will be on aspects of tissue inflammation and dysregulation in disease, the specific project, and PhD research hypothesis, will be developed with the student to address a clinically relevant research question within the students medical subspecialty.

Current active programmed of research involves studies in:
Immunology: Fundamental discovery research on function of innate lymphoid cells in mucosal tissues. Activation and functions of monocytes/macrophages and sepsis.
Dermatology: skin inflammation in the context of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.
Respiratory Medicine: allergic asthma and the atopy march. Pulmonary fibrosis.
Gastroenterology: role of intestinal epithelium and microbiome in regulation of gut barrier function. Alarmin responses and intestinal inflammation, including eosinophilic esophagitis.

The student will be trained in a range of state-of-the-art laboratory research technologies, spanning molecular biology, transgenics, cellular immunology and pathology.
The group is active in the leading cutting-edge areas of inflammation research including microbiome regulation of inflammation, epithelial deregulation at mucosal barriers (lungs, skin, gut) and innate lymphoid cell regulations of T cell functions, use of CRISPR/Cas9 targeting for generation of transgenic mice.
See PubMed: Fallon PG.