News within Clinical Medicine
Dr Michael Freeley appointed Senior Research Fellow
Dr Freeley's research focuses on the cell biology of the T cell immune response, particularly the signalling pathways and proteins that regulate T cell activation and migration. Characterisation of these pathways holds great promise for modulating T cell immune responses in inflammatory/autoimmune diseases, infection and cancer. Michael’s research findings have been published in numerous high-impact peer-reviewed international journals, including The Journal of Immunology, Biochemical Journal, Science, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Immunological Methods and Biochemical Society Transactions. He has successfully secured funding for his research, including a recent award from TCD Med Day for identification of novel therapeutic targets in T cells for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (2014) and travel awards from Ulysses (2007) and Enterprise Ireland (2004). He is a co-ordinator of the MSc in Molecular Medicine programme since 2013 and prior to this he co-ordinated the Health Research Board-funded PhD in Molecular Medicine programme for four years (2008-2012). He currently lectures on the MSc in Molecular Medicine programme (10 lectures), MSc in Translational Oncology programme (1 lecture), BSc in Molecular Medicine programme (3 lectures) and MSc in Pharmaceutical Medicine programme (1 lecture) in TCD. Notable prizes and awards include a Senior Research Fellowship awarded by TCD (2015), the High Content Analysis award sponsored by General Electric (2010), the Donald Weir research medal for best post-doctoral presentation at the annual Institute of Molecular Medicine meeting in TCD (2007), the Irish Society for Immunology prize for best post-doctoral oral presentation (2005) and the Sheppard Trust prize for best postgraduate oral presentation at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland annual research meeting (2002). Michael holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 2004) and a first-class honours degree from Dublin City University (1999). .