Biography

Dr. Ken Nally is a senior lecturer in The School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology and is a Principal Investigator and Group Leader at APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork (UCC). He has spent the last 20 years working in the area of Gut Inflammation discovery research primarily in the context of collaborations with multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline Inc. (GSK), Regulus Therapeutics (USA), Smart Cells (USA) and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. (USA). He is currently collaborating with AbbVie Inc. (USA) in the area of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). During the period (2006-2012), Dr. Nally directed and managed part of a successful 5 year research collaboration (approx. value €10 million) between APC Microbiome Ireland and GSK in area of IBD with a focus on early drug discovery research, inflammation, leukocyte trafficking, miRNA and epigenetic regulation of inflammatory gene expression. Dr. Nally was awarded an independent SFI Career Development Award grant (2014) to expand his research activities in these areas. His research group takes a functional genomics approach to discover the fundamental mechanisms underpinning cross-talk between inflammatory cytokine networks and their downstream effects on the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of inflammatory, anti-microbial and cell death gene expression. In 2015 Dr. Nally was awarded an SFI Spoke grant award (€7.5 million) to fund a five-year collaboration between the APC Microbiome Institute and AbbVie Inc. to discover new therapeutic targets for the next generation of biologics that could be used to treat patients with Crohn’s Disease (CD). Dr. Nally established the first Flow Cytometry Platform at APC/UCC and he is currently Group Leader of the Gut Inflammation and Host Microbe Dialogue Research Groups and Director of the Flow Cytometry Platform at APC/UCC.

Research Interests

Research theme: Inflammation, Cytokine Biology, Cell Death, Host-Microbe Dialogue

SDGs:  SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 4 Quality Education, SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Research key words: Host-Microbe interactions; Macrophages, Dendritic Cells, Homeostatic and Protective Immunity, Inflammation, Host tolerance to disease.