Dr. Lorna Gallagher

Lorna obtained her PhD from National University of Ireland, Maynooth in the area of molecular microbiology with Prof. Sean Doyle in 2010. Her first postdoctoral position was with Dr. Chet Cooper in the Dept. of Biology, Youngstown State University, Ohio. She then returned to Ireland to work with Prof. Ursula Bond in the Dept. of Microbiology in Trinity College Dublin. From there she moved to University College Cork to work with Prof. Fergal O’Gara. Her move to rheumatology research came in 2014, where she began her work with Dr. Ronan Mullan, Rheumatology consultant in Tallaght hospital. With funding from The Meath Foundation, Lorna carried out initial investigations of the effect AMPK therapies have on rheumatoid arthritis synovial cells. Subsequently, Dr. Mullan was awarded a three year HRB grant to conduct research on the project “Disease modification in rheumatoid arthritis using AMPK directed therapies” in the Molecular Rheumatology Dept. in Trinity College Dublin, in close partnership with Prof. Ursula Fearon. She was awarded the Young Investigator of the Year in 2014 from the Irish Society for Rheumatology for her work on this project. Her research interests include examining the effect metabolic inhibitors have on inflammation in the RA joint and identification of potential targets in metabolic pathways for anti-inflammatory treatments. She is a member of the European Rheumatology Network – EMEUNET.