Caitriona O'Driscoll

View Scopus Profile

Caitriona O'Driscoll

 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6915-6201
1980 …2026

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

Caitriona M. O'Driscoll is Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy, University College Cork, Ireland.

Total Career Publications: 137. Google Scholar H-Index: 48, citations 7214; Scopus H-Index: 43, citations 5486.

Total Career Research Income: Euro 10.5M. PhDs Graduated (Career): 25 PhDs She received a B.Sc. in Pharmacy from University College Dublin in 1976 and a PhD in 1983 from the University of Dublin, Trinity College. In 1977 she joined the faculty of the School of Pharmacy in Trinity College and held the posts of lecturer (1977-1994) and senior lecturer (1995-2003) in Pharmaceutics during which time she undertook a sabbatical in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Kansas. In 2003 she was appointed as Professor of Pharmaceutics at UCC and was, at the same time, appointed as the first Head of the School of Pharmacy at UCC, she served as Head from 2003-09 and 2010-13. During her tenure as Professor of Pharmaceutics she has established an energetic, productive and expanding drug delivery research team. The expertise established spans from pre-formulation through to production and manufacture of prototype delivery systems suitable for clinical trial. The group has obtained funding from exchequer and non-exchequer sources and offers a range of PhD positions. Strong links to the Pharmaceutical Industry underpin many of the research projects. The establishment within UCC of the drug delivery group and the development of interactions with Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Process & Chemical Engineering at UCC gives the University a unique strength which facilitates drug development research from drug design and synthesis all the way through formulation and production to clinical trial. Professor O'Driscoll has published peer-reviewed research articles in key pharmaceutical journals, including Journal of Controlled Release, Molecular Pharmaceutics, and Pharmaceutical Research. She has been invited to give lectures at various international conferences and institutions worldwide and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for several journals including European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Journal of Drug Delivery, Science and Technology and Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology.

Professor O'Driscoll is an external examiner for University of Bath, Masters in Pharmacy and for the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, Professional Registration examination. She has acted as PhD thesis examiner in University of Nottingham, University of London, King's College London, University of Bath, University of Strathclyde, Cardiff University, Queen's University Belfast, Monash University Melbourne and Trinity College Dublin. She is serving as a member of the Irish Medicine Board (2011-2014) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (2011-2014) and is a member of the College of Medicine and Health Executive UCC and the School of Pharmacy Executive. Professor O'Driscoll was awarded the 'Person of the Year award' for outstanding contribution to science by the Parenteral Drug Association (Ireland Chapter) in 2013 and in 2007/2008 was honoured with the 'Award for Professional Excellence' and 'Award for Pharmacist of the Year' by Helix Health.

Professor O'Driscoll is a Board member of: the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) (2011-20) Council Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) (2011-15); Cork Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) (2014-17); Critical Path USA (2018-date) and Co-founder and Co-Chair of Regulatory Science Ireland (RSI) (2014-19).

Research Interests

Professor O’Driscoll’s research strategy is translational in nature and product driven. The theme of the research is drug delivery with an emphasis on `problem’ or difficult drugs e.g. poorly water soluble compounds, and, products of the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry including peptide/protein type drugs, plasma DNA and siRNA. These candidate drugs are chosen for strategic reasons. Greater than 40% of new chemical entities currently synthesised as potential drugs are poorly water soluble and consequently are difficult to formulate for efficient delivery. In recent years significant growth has occurred in the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry in Ireland and internationally. Biopharmaceuticals, including peptide/proteins, genes and siRNA, are now approaching 50% of all new drugs in development. It is well accepted that the major barrier to marketing these product as novel therapeutics is the design of efficient delivery systems. The focus has been to develop nano-sized delivery constructs which are robust enough to survive processing, are stable on storage and achieve cell /site specific delivery in vivo. Such targeted systems aim to increase therapeutic efficacy and reduce side effects or off target effects. In general the work includes a focus on oral drug delivery, while this is often the most challenging route of administration; it is the most acceptable route for the patient and consequently the most commercially viable.  

Research Grants

Funding Body

Title

Period

Award

 Science Foundation of Ireland

 SFI Oral & Pulmonary deliverary of peptides & genes - Irish Drug Delivery Research Network (IDDN) ( R12553)

 01-DEC-07 / 31-MAY-13

 €1,330,663

Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology (IRCSET)

IRCSET PG "siRNA delivery in prostrate cancer" ( R12331)

01-OCT-07 / 30-SEP-10

€74,586

Enterprise Irl

Cyclodextrin-derived vectors for RNA interface and gene silencing PC/2006/202 ( R12087)

04-JUL-06 / 03-NOV-07

€103,445

Enterprise Irl

EI "A new versatile range of synthetic gene delivery vectors" ( R11484)

01-JUL-05 / 30-SEP-06

: €30,400

Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology (IRCSET)

IRCSET PG Non Viral Delivery of siRNA - Student Aoife O'Mahony ( R12839)

01-NOV-08 / 31-OCT-12

€72,009

Industry

Bioavailability Study in Pigs ( R11421)

15-APR-05 / 30-SEP-07

€37,354

Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology (IRCSET)

IRCSET PG "Non viral gene delivery" ( R11507)

01-OCT-05 / 31-MAR-09

€80,915

Enterprise Irl

EI - Cyclodextrinderived vectors for RNAi ( R13096))

01-APR-09 / 01-OCT-11

€542,188

Industry

Development of Taste masking Platform Technologies ( R12160)

01-JAN-90 / 31-MAY-22

€78,350

Foreign Research Institute

Creating a Lipid Formulation Classification System. ( R13955)

01-NOV-10 / 30-SEP-22

€35,000

Irish Funded Research Non Exchequer

Pre-clinical development of stealth cyclodextrin siRNA nano-delivery systems for prostate cancer treatment. ( R14258)

01-OCT-11 / 31-DEC-15

€282,013

Miscellaneous Non Exchequer

Cancer Research Ireland "Systematic evaluation of the bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy of ." ( R11967)

01-OCT-06 / 31-MAR-09

€34,000

Enterprise Irl

Development of Taste Masking Platform Technologies ( R11818)

10-JUL-06 / 31-MAY-08

€356,938

Science Foundation of Ireland

SFI OIP 2010 Equipment & Staff ( R13612)

01-JAN-10 / 31-DEC-11

€28,065

Irish Funded Research Non Exchequer

The use of non-Viral Vectors to effectively silence Genes in Primary and Metastatic Prostate Cancer Models. ( R14645)

01-OCT-12 / 30-SEP-16

€136,980

Enterprise Irl

EI "CS20151459 Proposal Preparation" ( R16868)

25-NOV-15 / 25-AUG-16

€9,190

Irish Funded Research Non Exchequer

ICS CRS12EVA ; National Mobility Funding. ( R15829)

03-JUN-14 / 26-AUG-14

€3,000

Irish Funded Research Non Exchequer Start

ICS "CRS12EVA Mobility Funding" Prof C O'Driscoll ( R16651)

16-SEP-15 / 12-AUG-16

€6,000

Science Foundation of Ireland

SFI - 13/RC/2073 - CURAM Platform - Caitriona O'Driscoll [X] ( R16689)

01-JAN-15 / 31-DEC-20

€218,548

Irish Funded Research Non Exchequer

Small Interfering RNA (siRNA) Inhibits Relapsed Acute Myeloid Leukaemia via BRD4 Knockdown. ( R17077)

02-MAY-16 / 30-SEP-19

€10,000

Miscellaneous Non Exchequer

College of Medicine Regulatory Science Ireland ; The Centre for Regulatory Science is an initiative driven by Prof C O'Driscoll. CoM have given €15K and DIT have give €15K to investigate the possibility of pursiung such a Centre. ( R15556)

01-JAN-14 / 30-SEP-23

€30,000

Science Foundation Ireland

Centre for research in medical devices

03-NOV-14 / 31-OCT-19

€281,200.00

Science Foundation of Ireland

SFI ' Modified CD's as novel targeted¿for Cancer Therapy" ( R11749)

01-SEP-06 / 28-FEB-10

€141,500

European Union

New Oral Nanomedicines - Transporting Therapeutic Macromolecules across the Intestinal Barrier. ( R14594)

01-MAY-12 / 30-APR-17

€459,100

Science Foundation of Ireland

Formulation development and deposition of novel antibacterial coatings using atomic laser deposition to prevent infections associated with orthopaedic trauma implants. ( R14904)

01-JAN-13 / 30-JUN-14

€103,259

Science Foundation of Ireland

Formualation development and depostiion of novel anti-bacterial coatings using atomic laser deposition. ( R15399)

01-DEC-13 / 30-SEP-15

€3,500

Irish Research Council

RVG tagged Cyclodextrin nanoparticles for siRNA delivery to the brain, targeting Huntington's disease. ( R15846)

01-OCT-14 / 30-SEP-15

€91,790

Irish Research Council

Antibody-targeted cyclodextrins for siRNA-based therapy of acute myeloid leukaemia. ( R15271)

01-OCT-13 / 30-SEP-15

€91,790

Science Foundation of Ireland

MedTrain Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND Fellowship. ( R17937)

01-SEP-17 / 31-DEC-20

€18,676

Science Foundation of Ireland

The Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre - SFI Research Centre PhD Programme ( R18371)

01-OCT-18 / 30-JUN-24

€194,994

Science Foundation of Ireland

SFI PhD Scheme 17/RC-PhD/3477 ( R18507)

01-OCT-18 / 31-MAR-23

€94,900

Enterprise Irl

Cellular and Regional specificity enabling Oral Delivery of Therapeutic Nucleic Acids to resolve Inf ( R20692)

29-JUL-21 / 28-APR-22

€8,706

Foreign Industry

Evaluation of Modified Cyclodextrins for Nucleic Acid Delivery ( R20593)

01-JUL-21 / 30-SEP-24

€224,305

Foundation Funded Research

Prostate Cancer Research Donation ( R18940)

01-JUL-19 / 31-DEC-25

€110,000

Science Foundation of Ireland

MedTrain Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND Fellowship. ( R18005)

01-SEP-17 / 15-MAR-19

€44,567

SFI Industry

SFI 17/RC-PhD/3477 - SFIIND Contribution - Jazz Pharmaceuticals - Caitriona O'Driscoll ( R18899)

01-OCT-18 / 31-MAR-23

€94,900

Health Research Board

Engineering RNAbased Therapeutics for Traetment of Sepsis Induced Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome. ( R19380)

 

€799,937

Horizon 2020

COLOTAN ( R19934)

01-JAN-21 / 31-DEC-24

€263,454

Irish Research Council

BRAINcHING - BRAIn-targeting cyclodextrin-modified Nanoparticles for the delivery of antisense oligonucleotides targeting the HuntingtIN Gene. ( R20426)

01-SEP-21 / 31-AUG-23

€96,417

European Union

MedTrain Marie Curie COFUND Fellowship ( R17851)

01-SEP-17 / 31-AUG-19

€126,000

Horizon Europe

HORIZON-HLTH- 2021-TOOL-06-02 — Next generation advanced therapies to treat highly prevalent and high burden diseases with unmet medical needs ( R21356)

01-OCT-22 / 30-SEP-26

€1,251,938

Science Foundation of Ireland

SFI 12/RC/2275_2 SSPC3 Pharm5 - Ref SSPC Centre Target Budget - Prof Caitriona O'Driscoll (X) ( R21309)

01-JUL-19 / 31-DEC-25

€10,000

HEACOVID19

HEACOVID Call 4 ( R21310)

01-OCT-22 / 31-MAR-23

€6,167

Science Foundation of Ireland

_P2 CURAM ( R20739)

01-JAN-22 / 31-DEC-26

€143,188

Teaching Activities

Prof. O'Driscoll currently teaches various aspects of Pharmaceutics to all levels of undergraduate B. Pharmacy students including PF1012, PF3008, PF4109.

At postgraduate level she teaches modules in the MSc Biotechnology and MSc Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Systems 

Recent PhD Students

Student Name

Supervision Period

Bruno Godinho - NUI (UCC)

2014

Aoife O'Mahony - NUI (UCC)

2012

Fatma Farag - NUI (UCC)

2012

Jianfeng Guo - NUI (UCC)

2011

Martin O'Neill - NUI (UCC)

2010

 Waleed Faisal - NUI (UCC)

2008

External positions

Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics, Trinity College Dublin

1 Apr 1995 → 30 Jun 2003

Research Sabbatical, University of Kansas

1 Jan 1988 → 31 Dec 1988

Lecturer in Pharmaceutics, Trinity College Dublin

1 Sep 1977 → 1 Jul 1995

UCC Futures (primary)

  • Future Medicines

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics where Caitriona O'Driscoll is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
  • 1 Similar Profiles
View full fingerprint

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or
Explore network further
View all 206 research outputs
View all 23 activities
View all 7 prizes
View all 13 press/media