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4. Fiona McDonald

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Biography

Fiona McDonald received a B.Sc. degree (Jnt. Hons) in Physiology and Pharmacology from University College Dublin, in 2008. She carried out postgraduate research to assess the sex-specific impact of chronic intermittent hypoxia exposure on respiratory muscle function during development, and was awarded her PhD in 2014 from UCD. Fiona then carried out a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship funded by SIDS Calgary Society, at University of Calgary in Canada. Her project investigated the interaction of multiple stressors, including prenatal cigarette smoke exposure on neonatal cardiorespiratory function. In 2016, Fiona joined Professor Julian Paton’s lab at University of Bristol, UK to explore the underlying mechanisms of hypertension and novel therapeutic strategies. In 2018, Fiona joined the Department of Physiology as a Lecturer and Principle Investigator. The theme of Fiona’s research is understanding mechanism of early life stress, such as unstable patterns of oxygenation, on cardiorespiratory and motor function in preterm infants. Fiona has a keen interest in exploring sex-specific vulnerabilities during development. Her work seeks to identify novel preventative strategies for preterm infants to improve their long-term functional outcomes and their quality of life.‍

Research Interests

Respiratory control, muscle function, cardiovascular physiology, early life stress, hypoxia, sexual dimorphism, development

Research Grants

	Project	Funding Body	Start Date	End Date	Award
	Early life stress in preterm infants- Award Declined	Irish Research Council
	Cerebal blood flow patterns in a piglet model of intraventricular haemorrhage	Miscellaneous Non Exchequer	01-FEB-22	17-MAY-24	€10,000.00
	A Trilogy of Stressors in the NICU: Towards Therapy for Preterm Adversity.	Science Foundation of Ireland	01-MAR-19	31-AUG-24	€552,388.00
	Trilogy of stressors in the neonatal period	UCC TRAP (Translational Research Access Programme)			€9,950.00
	A trilogy of stressors in the NICU: Towards therapy for preterm adversity.	Science Foundation Ireland	01-MAR-19	28-FEB-23	€511,000.00

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Publications

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Peer Reviewed Journals

	Year	Publication
	(2022)	'Novel oxygen sensing mechanism in the spinal cord involved in cardiorespiratory responses to hypoxia' Barioni NO;Derakhshan F;Tenorio Lopes L;Onimaru H;Roy A;McDonald F;Scheibli E;Baghdadwala MI;Heidari N;Bharadia M;Ikeda K;Yazawa I;Okada Y;Harris MB;Dutschmann M;Wilson RJA; (2022) 'Novel oxygen sensing mechanism in the spinal cord involved in cardiorespiratory responses to hypoxia'. Science Advances, 8 (12) [DOI] [Details]
	(2021)	'Targeting the toll-like receptor pathway as a therapeutic strategy for neonatal infection' Dias, Maria L.; O'Connor, Karen M.; Dempsey, Eugene; O'Halloran, Ken D.; McDonald, Fiona Brigid (2021) 'Targeting the toll-like receptor pathway as a therapeutic strategy for neonatal infection'. American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2021)	'The art of facilitation: a delicate hormonal balance!' McDonald, Fiona B. (2021) 'The art of facilitation: a delicate hormonal balance!'. Experimental Physiology, [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2021)	'Influence of innate immune activation on endocrine and metabolic pathways in infancy' O'Connor, Karen M.; Ashoori, Minoo; Dias, M. L.; Dempsey, Eugene; O'Halloran, Ken D.; McDonald, Fiona B.; (2021) 'Influence of innate immune activation on endocrine and metabolic pathways in infancy'. American Journal of Physiology (Endocrinology and Metabolism), [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2021)	'Sparse-Denoising Methods for Extracting Desaturation Transients in Cerebral Oxygenation Signals of Preterm Infants' Ashoori M;Dempsey EM;McDonald FB;O'Toole JM; (2021) 'Sparse-Denoising Methods for Extracting Desaturation Transients in Cerebral Oxygenation Signals of Preterm Infants'. Annual International Conference Of The Ieee Engineering In Medicine And Biology Society. Ieee Engineering In Medicine And Biology Society. Annual International Conference, 2021 [DOI] [Details]
	(2020)	'The impact of preterm adversity on cardiorespiratory function' McDonald FB;Dempsey EM;O'Halloran KD; (2020) 'The impact of preterm adversity on cardiorespiratory function'. Experimental Physiology, 105 (1) [DOI] [Details]
	(2020)	'Progesterone is a promising therapeutic for the prevention of apnoea' McDonald F.B.;O'Connor K.M.;O'Halloran K.D. (2020) 'Progesterone is a promising therapeutic for the prevention of apnoea'. Experimental Physiology, [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2019)	'The impact of preterm adversity on cardiorespiratory function' McDonald, Fiona B.; Dempsey, Eugene M.; O'Halloran, Ken D. (2019) 'The impact of preterm adversity on cardiorespiratory function'. Experimental Physiology,   [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2019)	'Epigenetic silencing by early life hypoxic stress programmes respiratory motor control' O’Connor, Karen M.; Dias, Maria L.; McDonald, Fiona B.; O’Halloran, Ken D. (2019) 'Epigenetic silencing by early life hypoxic stress programmes respiratory motor control'. Experimental Physiology,   [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2018)	'The shape of things to come: Early life stress stunts brainstem microglia, with lasting implications for cardiorespiratory control and plasticity' O'Halloran, KD;McDonald, FB (2018) 'The shape of things to come: Early life stress stunts brainstem microglia, with lasting implications for cardiorespiratory control and plasticity'. Experimental Physiology, 103 :1183-1184 [DOI] [Details]
	(2018)	'Caffeine therapy for apnoea of prematurity: Wake up to the fact that sex matters' McDonald FB;Dempsey EM;O'Halloran KD; (2018) 'Caffeine therapy for apnoea of prematurity: Wake up to the fact that sex matters'. Experimental Physiology, 103 (10) [DOI] [Details]
	(2018)	'Pharmacotherapies for apnoea of prematurity: time to pause and consider targeted sex-specific strategies?' O'Halloran KD;McDonald FB; (2018) 'Pharmacotherapies for apnoea of prematurity: time to pause and consider targeted sex-specific strategies?'. Experimental Physiology, 103 (2) [DOI] [Details]
	(2017)	'Thermal and cytokine responses to endotoxin challenge during early life' McDonald FB;Khawaja AM;Imran AA;Ellis ME;Chandrasekharan K;Hasan SU; (2017) 'Thermal and cytokine responses to endotoxin challenge during early life'. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 95 (12) [DOI] [Details]
	(2016)	'Early life exposure to chronic intermittent hypoxia primes increased susceptibility to hypoxia-induced weakness in rat sternohyoid muscle during adulthood' McDonald Fiona B.; Dempsey Eugene M.; O'Halloran Ken D. (2016) 'Early life exposure to chronic intermittent hypoxia primes increased susceptibility to hypoxia-induced weakness in rat sternohyoid muscle during adulthood'. Frontiers in Physiology, 7 [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2016)	'Effects of Gestational and Postnatal Exposure to Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia on Diaphragm Muscle Contractile Function in the Rat' McDonald, FB;Dempsey, EM;O'Halloran, KD (2016) 'Effects of Gestational and Postnatal Exposure to Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia on Diaphragm Muscle Contractile Function in the Rat'. Frontiers in Physiology, 7 [DOI] [Details]
	(2016)	'Sex, stress and sleep apnoea: decreased susceptibility to upper airway muscle dysfunction following intermittent hypoxia in females' O’Halloran, Ken D.; Lewis, Philip; McDonald, Fiona (2016) 'Sex, stress and sleep apnoea: decreased susceptibility to upper airway muscle dysfunction following intermittent hypoxia in females'. Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology, :1-7   [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2016)	'Cardiorespiratory control and cytokine profile in response to heat stress, hypoxia, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure during early neonatal period' McDonald FB;Chandrasekharan K;Wilson RJ;Hasan SU; (2016) 'Cardiorespiratory control and cytokine profile in response to heat stress, hypoxia, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure during early neonatal period'. Physiological reports, 4 (2) [DOI] [Details]
	(2016)	'Interactive effects of maternal cigarette smoke, heat stress, hypoxia, and lipopolysaccharide on neonatal cardiorespiratory and cytokine responses' McDonald, FB;Chandrasekharan, K;Wilson, RJA;Hasan, SU (2016) 'Interactive effects of maternal cigarette smoke, heat stress, hypoxia, and lipopolysaccharide on neonatal cardiorespiratory and cytokine responses'. American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 311 :1113-1124 [DOI] [Details]
	(2015)	'The beta(2)-adrenoceptor agonist terbutaline recovers rat pharyngeal dilator muscle force decline during severe hypoxia' McDonald, FB,Skelly, JR,O'Halloran, KD (2015) 'The beta(2)-adrenoceptor agonist terbutaline recovers rat pharyngeal dilator muscle force decline during severe hypoxia'. Oral Diseases, 21 :121-127 [DOI] [Details]
	(2015)	'Early life exposure to chronic intermittent hypoxia causes upper airway dilator muscle weakness, which persists into young adulthood' McDonald, FB;Williams, R;Sheehan, D;O'Halloran, KD (2015) 'Early life exposure to chronic intermittent hypoxia causes upper airway dilator muscle weakness, which persists into young adulthood'. Experimental Physiology, 100 :947-966 [DOI] [Details]
	(2015)	'Chronic intermittent hypoxia increases rat sternohyoid muscle NADPH oxidase expression with attendant modest oxidative stress' Williams, Robert; Lemaire, Paul; Lewis, Philip; McDonald, Fiona B.; Lucking, Eric; Hogan, Sean; Sheehan, David; Healy, Vincent; O'Halloran Ken D. (2015) 'Chronic intermittent hypoxia increases rat sternohyoid muscle NADPH oxidase expression with attendant modest oxidative stress'. Frontiers in Physiology, 6 [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2014)	'Effect of chronic intermittent hypoxia on the reflex recruitment of the genioglossus during airway obstruction in the anesthetized rat' Edge D;McDonald FB;Jones JF;Bradford A;O'Halloran KD; (2014) 'Effect of chronic intermittent hypoxia on the reflex recruitment of the genioglossus during airway obstruction in the anesthetized rat'. Progress In Brain Research, 209 [DOI] [Details]
	(2014)	'Chronic nitric oxide synthase inhibition does not impair upper airway muscle adaptation to chronic intermittent hypoxia in the rat' McDonald FB;Edge D;O'Halloran KD; (2014) 'Chronic nitric oxide synthase inhibition does not impair upper airway muscle adaptation to chronic intermittent hypoxia in the rat'. Progress In Brain Research, 212 [DOI] [Details]
	(2014)	'Novel method for conscious airway resistance and ventilation estimation in neonatal rodents using plethysmography and a mechanical lung' Zhang B;McDonald FB;Cummings KJ;Frappell PB;Wilson RJ; (2014) 'Novel method for conscious airway resistance and ventilation estimation in neonatal rodents using plethysmography and a mechanical lung'. Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology, 201 [DOI] [Details]

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Professional Activities

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Honours and Awards

	Year	Title	Awarding Body
	2024	Advanced Certificate in Paediatric Clinical Trials	Connect 4 Children- Horizon
	2021	Certificate in Teaching and Learning	University College Cork
	2019	Experimental Physiology Review Prize	Physiological Society
	2019	Aurora Leadership Programme	UCC
	2017	HEA Associate Fellow	Higher Education Academy UK

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Professional Associations

	Association	Function	From / To
	Physiological Society	Member	01-OCT-08 /
	Control of Breathing and Airway disease	Member	01-JUN-20 /
	New Born Brain Society	Member	01-JAN-21 /

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Conference Contributions

	Year	Publication
	(2022)	Experimental Biology, Maria Casacao, Karen O'Connor, Gene Dempsey, Ken O'Halloran, Fiona McDonald (2022) Respiratory function in a novel neonatal rat model of early life oxygen dysregulation and subsequent immune challenge. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Experimental Biology, Online . [Details]
	(2022)	International Newborn Brain Society, Minoo Ashoori, Gene Dempsey, Ken O'Halloran, John O'Toole, Fiona McDonald (2022) Can early cerebral desaturation events in extremely preterm infants predict intraventricular hemorrhage in the first week of life?. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], International Newborn Brain Society, Online . [Details]
	(2022)	World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Maria Casacao, Karen O'Connor, Gene Dempsey, Ken O'Halloran, Fiona McDonald (2022) Developmental expression of TLRs and key accessory proteins in naïve neonatal Sprague Dawley rats. [Poster Presentation], World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Online . [Details]
	(2022)	Pediatric Society Conference, Minoo Ashoori, Ken O'Halloran, John O'Toole, Fiona McDonald, Gene Dempsey (2022) Early cerebral desaturation events in extremely preterm infants predict intraventricular haemorrhage in the first week of life. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Pediatric Society Conference, United States of America . [Details]
	(2021)	Experimental Biology, Maria Casacao, Karen O'Connor, Gene Dempsey, Ken O'Halloran, Fiona McDonald (2021) Suppression of breathing by Gram positive bacterial proteins in neonatal Sprague Dawley rat pups. [Poster Presentation], Experimental Biology, Online . [Details]
	(2021)	Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, Maria Casacao, Karen O'Connor, Gene Dempsey, Ken O'Halloran, Fiona McDonald (2021) Leptin Hormone increased by immune activation in rat pups following neonatal oxygen dysregulation. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, Online . [Details]
	(2021)	Physiological Society UK, Maria Casacao, Karen O'Connor, Gene Dempsey, Ken O'Halloran, Fiona McDonald (2021) Early life oxygen dysregulation and Gram positive bacterial challenge modulates steroid hormone expression. [Poster Presentation], Physiological Society UK, Online . [Details]
	(2020)	UCC Horizon, Maria Casacao, Karen O'Connor, Gene Dempsey, Ken O'Halloran, Fiona McDonald (2020) Developmental regulation of TLR and key accessory proteins in neonatal Sprague Dawley rats. [Poster Presentation], UCC Horizon, UCC . [Details]
	(2020)	Experimental Biology, Nicole O Barioni, Fatemeh Derakhshan , Luana Tenorio Lopes, Hiroshi Onimaru, Arijit Roy, Fiona McDonald, Erika Scheibli, Mufaddal I Baghdadwala, Negar Heidari, Manisha Bharadia, Keiko Ikeda, Itaru Yazawa, Yasumasa Okada, Michael B Harris, Mathias Dutschmann , Richard J A Wilson (2020) Spinal oxygen sensors: A novel oxygen sensing mechanism involved in cardiovascular responses to hypoxia. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Experimental Biology, United States of America . [Details]
	(2020)	UCC Horizon, Maria Casacao, Karen O'Connor, Gene Dempsey, Ken O'Halloran, Fiona McDonald (2020) The effect of surface proteins of Gram positive bacteria on respiratory muscle in a neonatal rat model of chronic intermittent hypoxia-hyperoxia-normoxia. [Poster Presentation], UCC Horizon, UCC . [Details]

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Committees

	Committee	Function	From / To
	Mna@UCC	Committee member	2020 /

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Employment

	Employer	Position	From / To
	University College Cork	Lecturer in Physiology	03-SEP-18 /
	University College Cork	Post doctoral Researcher	01-SEP-17 / 31-AUG-18
	University of Bristol	Research Associate	01-JAN-16 / 21-AUG-17
	University of Calgary	Post doctoral Fellowship	01-JAN-14 / 31-DEC-15

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Education

	Year	Institution	Qualification	Subject
	2008	University College Dublin	Bachelor of Science	Physiology and Pharmacology
	2014	University College Dublin	PhD	Physiology

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Outreach Activities

	Description
	Pint of Science, Cork, 2018

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Journal Activities

	Journal	Role	To / From
	Frontiers In Cell And Developmental Biology	Member of Editorial Board	01-JAN-21 -
	Experimental Physiology	Editor	01-JAN-21 -

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Teaching Activities

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Current Postgraduate Students

	Student	Degree Type
	Ashoori Minoo	Doctoral Degree

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Research Information

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Internal Collaborators

	Name	Institute	Country
	Professor Ken O'Halloran	Department of Physiology, UCC	IRELAND
	Dr. John O'Toole	INFANT	IRELAND
	Professor Eugene Dempsey	Paediatrics and Child Health, UCC	IRELAND

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External Collaborators

	Name	Organisation / Institute	Country
	Dr. Valentina Mosienko	Department of Neuroscience, Exeter	UNITED KINGDOM
	Professor Shabih Hasan	Department of Pediatrics, University of Calgary	CANADA
	Professor Richard Wilson	Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary	CANADA