Professor David Williams, ICAT Director, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences

PhD proposal development talks by the Year 1 ICAT Fellows

• Dr Adrien Da Silva, Dr Shahd Elamin, Dr Lauren Madden Doyle, Dr David Synnott
• Chaired by Professor Conall Dennedy

PhD proposal development talks by the Year 1 ICAT Fellows

• Dr Aine Varley, Dr Brian Maloney, Dr Niamh Dhondt, Dr Alice Talbot
• Chaired by Professor Bernadette McGuinness

Fast-paced research session, 3-minute talks from the ICAT Fellows

• Dr Clodagh McDermott, Dr Lisa Kiely, Dr Michael Duggan, Dr Nicholas Stefanovic, Dr Margaret Brennan
• Chaired by Professor Carmel Mooney

Parallel session: Small group mentoring session for final year fellows and alumni in the adjacent boardroom, facilitated by Professor Bernadette McGuinness and Professor Deirdre Murray.

Themed research discussions will be facilitated in the meeting room, with attendees encouraged to join two or three discussion groups during the session.

Fast-paced research session, 3-minute talks from the ICAT Fellows

• Dr Eithne Nic an Ríogh, Dr Saied Ali, Dr Nicola Raftery, Dr John Mark O’Leary, Dr Rachel MacCann
• Chaired by Professor Brian O’Connell

Parallel session: Small group mentoring session for pre-PhD fellows in the adjacent boardroom, facilitated by Professor Padraic Fallon and Professor Carmel Mooney.

Fast-paced research session, 3-minute talks from the ICAT Fellows

• Dr Vincent Healy, Dr Louise Kelly, Dr Oana Deac, Dr Brian O’Mahony, Dr Owen Killian
• Chaired by Professor Padraic Fallon

Professor David Dockrell, Chair of Infection Medicine / Director of the Centre for Inflammation Research, The University of Edinburgh

I am a clinician scientist who graduated from Trinity College Dublin and received further training at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. I am a former Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow. Before moving to Edinburgh I was co-director of the Florey Institute, a cross faculty multidisciplinary centre, which focused on studying host-pathogen interactions in the context of Gram-positive bacteria. Since 2021 I have been Director of the Centre of Inflammation Research in the Institute of Regeneration and Repair and since 2023 I have been a co-director of Edinburgh Infectious Diseases. Since 2022 I have been Commissioner for Human Medicines at the MHRA.

Macrophages play a key role in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. We are interested in understanding how key macrophage innate immune functions protect healthy individuals against infection, despite recurring challenge, and how these core responses are perturbed by human disease inducing susceptibility to infection. In particular we are interested in how HIV and how chronic obstructive pulmonary disease alter macrophage responses. We believe that by optimising innate immune responses as part of an innate host-based immunotherapy we can limit our reliance on antimicrobial therapy and provide an alternative strategy to that focused on targeting pathogens by vaccine responses or with antimicrobials to which they can develop resistance.