Research Interests

Open to PhD applications in the field of

• Proteomics – to identify protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions in rhinovirus-infected cells.
• Virology/molecular cell biology/biochemistry – to understand the role of cellular proteins in rhinovirus replication.

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Current Research Opportunities

• Characterisation of new mechanisms of host subversion by rhinovirus, the common cold virus
• Characterisation of new mechanisms of host subversion by rhinovirus, the common cold virus

Public outreach & key achievements

• 2016 – Awarded a grant from Medical Research Foundation and Asthma UK to identify host proteins that are essential for rhinoviruses to replicate in cells.
• 2018 – Published a groundbreaking article in the journal Nature Chemistry, demonstrating that the replication of rhinoviruses could be inhibited by a molecule targeting key cellular proteins.
• 2023 – Awarded a grant from the UKRI Medical Research Council to understand how specific host proteins, which the group identified, allow rhinoviruses to replicate in cells.

Alumni: Where are they now

PhD Title	Identification of new host proteins essential for the replication of rhinovirus
Country	Northern Ireland
Current Position	Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast

 

PhD Title	Investigating the role of host proteins in rhinovirus infected cells
Country	Northern Ireland
Current Position	Assistant Scientific Officer at AFBI

 

Discover More

• Nature Chemistry: Fragment-derived inhibitors of human N-myristoyltransferase block capsid assembly and replication of the common cold virus

 

• Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences

• School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences

• Wellcome-Wolfson Institute For Experimental Medicine