TCD Immunology Research Places Ireland in Second Place in Global Immunology Research

Posted on: 06 November 2007

A global ranking for immunology research just published reveals that immunology research carried out by Trinity College Dublin has placed Ireland in second place in global immunology research. The country has been ranked behind Switzerland and ahead of the USA   in third place.

According to Lab Times¹, publications in immunology by Trinity College researchers for the period 2000-2006 have led to Ireland being ranked second in the world in terms of citations per paper (which is a measure of the impact of research for the field). TCD produced the highest number of papers in Ireland and achieved the highest impact measured by citations per paper.

This year’s ranking is up one place on last year’s figures which placed Ireland in third place.  Trinity College Dublin is also the only Irish university to be ranked in the top 1% of institutions in the world in immunology, with nine of the current top ten papers in immunology in Ireland by Trinity researchers. 

“These latest figures are a real testament to the performance of TCD immunologists in the past few years,” said Professor Luke O’Neill, Head of the School of Biochemistry and Immunology.  “Very exciting research is being carried out in Trinity which is helping in the effort to find new treatments for diseases involving the immune system, such as TB, malaria and inflammatory bowel disease, and also in the effort to find new vaccines.  It is especially rewarding to see our work being recognised in this way.”

Plans for future developments in immunology are well underway, with a major expansion planned.  This includes the recent appointment of Professor Cliona O’Farrelly to a new chair in Comparative Immunology, which is a joint position between the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, and the School of Medicine .

Notes to the Editor:

Ralf Neumann (2007) ‘Publication Analysis 2000-2006 Immunology’ Lab Times 4, 38-41