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Full NameProfessor Billy Bourke
- infectious disease and the immune system
- Medicine
- Paediatrics
- Gastroenterology
- Infectious diseases
My laboratory interest is in the pathogenesis of infectious and inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. We are particularly interested in studying the interface between microbial pathogens and the host mucosal surface. Recent projects conducted in close collaboration with UCD colleagues involved in cell biology (Ulla Knaus) include understanding how intestinal reactive oxygen species (ROS) function to protect the host from bacterial challenge despite low concentrations at the mucosal surface (Corcionivoschi et al. Cell Host and Microbe 2012, Alvarez et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2016).
In addition, together with colleagues interested in microbial pathogenesis (Marguerite Clyne, Tadhg O'Croinin) we have been studying how the zoonotic pathogen Campylobacter jejuni interacts with mucus and mucins with particular reference to how this organism behaves in chickens as a commensal and humans as a pathogen (Shortt et al. MBio 2016, Naughton et al. Infection & Immunity 2013).