Kieran McGourty, PhD. Short BIO. Long BIO

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1 Kieran McGourty, PhD Lecturer in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Department of Chemical Sciences University of Limerick, Ireland Short BIO Kieran did his PhD and his Post-Doctoral scientific training in the UK at Imperial College and University College London looking at how cells respond to infection and to their immediate environment. He is currently a Lecturer in the Chemical Sciences department of the University of Limerick and is a Principal Investigator in the Bernal Institute. He is of the founding members within the Bernal BioSciBER lab research space. The BioSciBER labs aim 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, cell-material interaction and cell signalling responses to grow tissue outside the body using stem cells. To do this Kieran investigates the natural tissue environment and then tries to build material with similar properties outside the body on which cells can grow in an orderly fashion. He is particular focused on the intestinal, muscular and epidermal niche Long BIO Kieran McGourty is currently a lecturer below the bar 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.

2 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. 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. CAREER PROFILE Education First Class Honours degree in Industrial Biochemistry, Minor: Structural Biology University of Limerick, Ireland. Wellcome Trust funded masters scholarship on the Molecular Basis of Infection, Imperial College London, London, UK Wellcome Trust funded PhD scholarship on Cell Pathogen Interactions, Imperial College London, London, UK Employment Research assistant studying the molecular basis of H. pylori infection, UCC, Cork, Ireland Postdoctoral fellow, Georgia Tech, USA. Marie Curie Actions and IRC funded (ELEVATE) Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering, University of Limerick, Ireland, School of Engineering HISTORY OF MENTORING AND SUPERVISION MSc/PhD Supervision Current PhD Students: 3 (SIGITA.MALIJAUSKAITE 2017-, (co- supervised) Amira.Mahdi 2017-,Sinead.Connolly ) INNOVATION/COMMERCIALISATION ACTIVITY Industrial Collaboration - Curran Scientific à 2017 present Development of techniques to isolate sub populations of cells Name of Source Scopus (Google Scholar) as of October 2017 Number of publications: 11 Number of citations: 307 Senior Author Publications: 2 Journal Articles: 8 Reviewed Conference Publications: 0 Reviews: 0 Book Chapters: 0 H- index (i10): 5 Year of 1 st publication: 2007

3 Research Statement A human body is made from several billions of cells, which carry out all of the diverse functions of life. At any one time they are engaged in performing their tasks, replicating (also known a proliferation) themselves or dying off in order to be replaced by new cells. This remarkable ability of cells to reproduce on command ensures that our bodies can respond to the myriad of challenges we encounter every day. One clearly observable manifestation of this ability is during wound healing, when specialised cells known as Adult Stem-Cells, migrate to the wound edge and begin to replicate. These cells initially replicate rapidly before they specialise (known as differentiation) to the cells of the tissue type where they are functioning. This process of replication followed by differentiation continues until the wound closes, at which point cell division ceases.

4 Fig1: Sections from a porcine (pig) intestine showing cells that make up this tissue. (A) Colon 15 µm section labelled for DNA, (blue) and cell boundary (green). (B and C) Upper intestine 15 µm section section labelled for DNA, (blue) and cell boundary (green) and a cell replication marker (red). (D) Upper intestine 15 µm section labelled for DNA, (blue) and cell boundary (green)and a marker for quiescence (resting stem cell) red. All scale bars correspond to 50 µm.

5 Fig2: In vitro cell growth. Different cells grown outside the body on plastic. (left panel) Single layer of cells grown until they stopped replication stained for DNA (blue) and cell boundary (green). (centre panel) Single layer of actively replicating stained for DNA (blue) and cell boundary (green). (right panel) Neurons from the brain grown on plastic stained for the cell boundary (Black). Quiescence (also named the 'G0' stage of the cell cycle) is the state in which cells are not dividing but retain the ability to restart their proliferation upon stimulation. Many cells in the body are in quiescence including hepatocytes (livercells), dermal fibroblasts (skin cells) and resting lymphocytes (immune system cells). Notably, many adult stem cells are maintained in a quiescent state but are able to re-enter the cell cycle to rapidly replicate and differentiate in response to stress such as injuries. Thus, the ability of cells to persist in quiescence and alternate to proliferation as required is crucial for tissue homeostasis renewal and response to life-threatening challenges. However, most research has focused on proliferating cells and our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that control quiescence especially is still very limited. Therefore, understanding how quiescence, proliferation and differentiation function will bring very exciting prospects for the development in the fields of biotechnology and medicine using targeted therapies or devices against quiescent cells to specifically spare them, kill them or modulate their behaviour. It is in this fascinating area that our lab undertakes research. Specifically, we hope to understand how Adult-Stem Cells respond to their immediate surroundings (known as the cell microenvironment) to stay resting or to proliferate or to undergo differentiation. We use both in vitro cell culturing models and ex vivo models to investigate this process. Ultimately, we would hope to create an in vitro device where we could reliably grow tissue outside of the body for use in transplantation, as a research tool and as a model system to study disease thereby reducing the need for animal models.

6 Fig 3: Example of a signal network where we try to identify signals that interact in the immediate environment of the cell to control stem cell behaviour Fig 4: Cartoon representation of a material on which stem cells can grow so that tissue can be grown outside the body. In this case the structure represents the villi ( finger like structures in the intestine)

7 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