Supervisor View Full Details

• genetics, genomics and molecular biology
• infectious disease and the immune system
• cell and developmental biology/regenerative medicine
• physiology and non-communicable disease

• Medicine
• Surgery
• Anaesthetics
• Emergency Medicine
• Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Ophthalmology
• Paediatrics
• Pathology

• Adolescent medicine
• Cardiology
• Dementia
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology
• Gastroenterology
• Geriatric Medicine
• Haematology
• Infectious diseases
• Immunology
• Neonatology
• Nephrology
• Neurology
• Neurophysiology
• Oncology
• Orthopaedic surgery
• Otorhinolaryngology
• Pharmacology
• Physiology
• Psychiatry
• Respiratory Medicine
• Rheumatology
• Vascular Medicine

My principal research interests are noncoding RNA expression and function; innate immunity and host-pathogen interactions; and, sex-related differences in disease. I study many of these topics in the context of chronic inflammatory lung diseases, especially CF and COPD; most of the projects have a therapeutic goal.

I have supervised 11 PhDs/6 MDs/1 MSc and currently oversee 4 postdocs and 2 PhDs.

Ongoing projects include the development of a range of microRNA-targeting medicines to treat lung diseases; elucidation of the contribution of sex hormones and the X chromosome to gender differences in disease; and investigation of the effects of altered noncoding RNA expression patterns (microRNA, long noncoding RNA and circular RNA) on disease pathogenesis.

Greene CM, ?1-Antitrypsin deficiency. Nature Reviews Disease Primers. 2016;2:16051.

Oglesby IK, miR-17 overexpression in CF airway epithelial cells decreases IL-8 production. European Respiratory Journal 2015;46(5):1350-60.

Vencken S, miR-CATCH: microRNA Capture Affinity Technology. Methods in Molecular Biology 2015;1218:365-73.

Hassan T, miR-199a-5p Silencing Regulates the UPR in COPD and ?1-Antitrypsin Deficiency. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2014;189(3):263-73.

Oglesby IK, CFTR regulation by microRNA-145/-223/-494 is altered in ?F508CF airway epithelium. J Immunol 2013;190(7):3354-62.

Chotirmall SH, Estrogen induces Pseudomonas mucoidy and promotes exacerbations in CF. N Engl J Med 2012;366(21):1978-86.

Potential PhD projects available in my group for which the appropriate expertise, infrastructure and national/international and industrial collaborations exist include, but are not limited to, combinations of the following types of studies:

? Biomarker discovery and identification of altered gene and noncoding RNA expression patterns associated with infection, non-infectious disease, disease severity, prescribed medications etc. [qPCR; TaqMan miRNA assays; miRScript arrays; Open Array, Nanostring or ArrayStar profiling; Next generation sequencing] (1,2).
? Functional studies of miRNA and lncRNA [in silico bioinformatics analysis, qPCR, western blotting/ELISA, overexpression and knock down studies, luciferase reporter assays, cloning & site-directed mutagenesis, miR-CATCH, in situ hybridisation, immunohistochemistry, chromatin immunoprecipitation, promoter methylation studies, in vitro translation, cDNA arrays].
? Evaluation of estrogenic or X chromosome-mediated effects on disease susceptibility, disease progression or response to treatment (3).
? Generation of nanoparticles encapsulating miRNA-, lncRNA-, gene-, or protein-targeting therapeutics (e.g. locked nucleic acid-based oligos, siRNAs, peptides/proteins) to treat the inflammatory or other manifestations of disease (4).
? Characterisation of the toxicity and efficacy of the these drugs in in vitro cell models and iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) by specialised single target [qPCR, ELISA, Western Immunoblotting, Confocal Microscopy, Flow Cytometry] and high throughput methodologies [Mesoscale Discovery arrays, High Content Analysis, Mass Spectrometry].
? Evaluation of a drug?s nebulisation compatibility and airway deposition properties via cascade impactor and breathing mannequin studies.

1. McKiernan PJ, High-throughput profiling for discovery of non-coding RNA biomarkers of lung disease. Expert Rev Mol Diagn 2016;16(2):173-85
2. McKiernan PJ, Long noncoding RNA are aberrantly expressed in vivo in the cystic fibrosis bronchial epithelium. Int J Biochem & Cell Biol. 2014;52:184-91.
3. Chotirmall SH, 17beta-estradiol inhibits IL-8 in cystic fibrosis by up-regulating secretory leucoprotease inhibitor. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2010;182(1):62-72.
4. McKiernan PJ, Targeting miRNA-based medicines to cystic fibrosis airway epithelial cells using nanotechnology. Int J Nanomedicine 2013;8:1-9.