Thursday 02 June 2016

The directors and Executive Management Team are delighted to announce Dr Keelin O’Donoghue and Prof Jonathan Hourihane will join the INFANT Centre as Principal Investigators.

Dr O’Donoghue and Prof Hourihane’s addition to the PI team is a very exciting time for INFANT. Prof Louise Kenny noted, “both Keelin and Jonathan bring a wealth of experience and knowledge which will extend the research areas of our centre. They are experts in their fields and we are really looking forward to working together to expand the impact that INFANT can have”. Prof Geraldine Boylan added that “the appointment of these PIs will help INFANT gain even more momentum as a world-leading research centre and will further our goal of improving health outcomes for mothers and their children”.

The Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCC, Professor Anita Maguire welcomed the addition of these talented researchers to the innovative INFANT Research Centre, stating: “The complementary expertise these researchers bring to the INFANT team will further support the more rapid translation of important research to the cot-side, and support the development of solutions to unmet global needs in perinatal healthcare.”

Keelin O’Donoghue heads the multi-disciplinary pregnancy loss research group at CUMH. She is an RCOG sub-specialist in maternal and fetal medicine. She established and leads the multiple pregnancy, fetal medicine and pregnancy loss services at CUMH, and is part of the Perinatal Medicine team. Keelin took up a post as Consultant Obstetrician/Gynaecologist and Senior Lecturer at CUMH and University College Cork in 2007and in 2008, Keelin established the first Irish Masters programme in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UCC. From 2010-2014, Keelin was Obstetric Lead on the Division of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Neonatology at CUMH and was Clinical Director for Women and Children at Cork University Hospital from 2013-2014.  Keelin is a member of the National Working Party for the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Clinical Programme, the Clinical Advisory Group of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Speciality Training Committee of the RCPI, the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre Perinatal Mortality Group and the HSE Bereavement Care Standards Development Group. Keelin’s main research interests include prenatal diagnosis, miscarriage, pregnancy loss, stillbirth and multiple pregnancy.

Jonathan Hourihane has been Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health in University College Cork, Ireland since 2005. He is co-PI of the BASELINE birth cohort study. He has ongoing projects in the following areas: clinical and proteomic characterisation of emerging food allergy syndromes, exploration of the link between skin barrier dysfunction and systemic allergic disorders, threshold doses of food allergens, immunomodulation of established allergic responses, prevention of allergic sensitisation, including use of pre-and probiotic-enhanced infant formulae and evaluation of quality of life in food allergic children. Jonathan’s primary area of clinical and research interest is in paediatric food allergy and anaphylaxis.

We all look forward to working with both Keelin and Jonathan, and warmly welcome them to the team.