Professor Caitriona O’Driscoll is Professor of Pharmaceutics & Director of Future Medicines in the School of Pharmacy.

Research Metrics: 2026 Scopus: 150+ peer reviewed publications. H-Index: 53

She received a B.Sc. (Hons) in Pharmacy from University College Dublin (UCD), a M.A (Jure officii) and PhD in Pharmaceutics from Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland. Lecturer in Pharmaceutics TCD, 1977-94 this included a sabbatical (1988) to the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Dept, University of Kansas, USA. Promoted to Senior Lecturer (1995-2003) in Pharmaceutics in TCD. Appointed as the inaugural Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy, UCC, 2003.

Director of UCC Futures: Future Medicines (2022 - date), a strategic research initiative in UU prioritising research in translational medicine.

Professor O'Driscoll's current research is focsued on non-viral drug delivery of therapeutic RNA. She is the co-ordinator of a Horizon Research and Innovation Action, GENEGUT, European-based initiative investigating the oral delivery of encapsulated RNA nanotherapeutics for targeted ileal Crohn’s disease (https://genegut.eu). She has supervised 25 PhD and 12 MSc theses to completion and is currently supervising 3 PhD and 3 master’s students. 

Elected as a Member (Science) of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA) in 2024 and currently serves as member of the UCC College of Medicine and Health Research Committee. Received Research Career Achievement Award, UCC 2025. In addition, she is currently on the editorial board of International Journal of Pharmaceutics.

Invited Speaker 2024-26:

·  Bicyclos Int School and Workshop, 2026, Seville, presented a Masterclass on ‘Gene Silencing,’

·  Invited Plenary lecture, June 2026, at the International Conference on Integrative Chemistry, Biology and Translational Medicine (ICBTM), Debrecen, Hungary.

· Invited Keynote speaker, 14th World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Vienna, March; 2024.

·   Nordic POP Annual meeting (Keynote), Uppsala University April, 2024

· International Symposium on Cyclodextrins (Keynote), Dunkerque, June, 2024.

· International Pharmaceutical Technology Symposium (Keynote), Ankara, Turkey, Sept. 2024. 

Public & Patient Involvement (PPI):

Invited speaker at Crohn’s & Colitis Ireland, Killarney, March 2026; 

Presented at the General Assembly, Bratislava June 2023, of International Federation of Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis Associations (IFCCA), a patient organisation and a partner in our GENEGUT consortium.

Recent Patent

Covalent conjugation of siRNA to amphiphilic cyclodextrins. European application number 17835816.4, Patent pending, 2026.