Professor Fitzgerald is a Wellcome Trust Investigator and leads a Regenerative Neuroimmunology research programme at Queen’s University Belfast. The goal of her research is to uncover how the immune system supports brain repair and to use this knowledge to develop regenerative therapies for neurological diseases. She is a member of several grant review committees including the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. She sits on a number of advisory boards including the Research Strategy Group of the Multiple Sclerosis Society (UK), the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the Transverse Myelitis Association (USA) and the Wellcome Trust Neuroimmunology Scientific steering committee. Professor Fitzgerald’s research excellence has been recognised by a number of awards including the UK MS Society’s Annual Research Prize (2018), QUB Vice-Chancellor’s prize for Research Innovation (2017) and QUB Staff Excellence Award for Outstanding Leadership (2018).