Prof Colin Hawkes

BIO

Prof Hawkes is a Lead Investigator in the INFANT Research Centre, Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist at Cork University Hospital, Associate Professor at UCC, and Adjunct Associate Professor at University of Pennsylvania. He is also Clinical Director of Paediatrics at Cork University Hospital, and Co-Lead for the National Programme for Paediatrics.

Research Interests

Prior to joining the INFANT Centre as a Principal Investigator, Prof Hawkes led a clinical and research programme at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the top ranked children’s diabetes centre in the United States. In Cork, his research focus is on improving outcomes in children with type 1 diabetes and he is collaborating with APC Microbiome Ireland on identifying modulators of type 1 diabetes progression. The goal of this work is to develop interventions that will delay or stop the development of type 1 diabetes. He is also actively studying factors to improve outcomes in children with establish type 1 diabetes. He is a leading expert in programme development and disparities in diabetes care, and has published and presented widely on these topics.

In addition to his primary research focus on type 1 diabetes, Prof Hawkes has published widely on paediatric endocrine disease. This includes research on the topics of childhood growth, disorders of calcium metabolism, and congenital hypothyroidism. He has published over 20 manuscripts on disorders of childhood growth and has developed growth charts that are used worldwide to identify children with skeletal dysplasia. Prof Hawkes was also the first to describe high calcium levels as a complication of the ketogenic diet. He has also identified rifampicin as a therapy for children with previously untreatable idiopathic infantile hypercalcaemia. Prof Hawkes has also published extensively on congenital hyperthyroidism, including a study demonstrating an inconsistency in newborn screening that has led to review of screening for this condition in the United States.

Career Profile

• 2007: MB BCh BAO BMedSc – University College Cork
• 2013: MD – University College Cork
• 2018: PhD in Childhood Growth Disorders – University College Cork
• 2018: Board Certification in Paediatrics, American Academy of Paediatrics
• 2019: Board Certification in Paediatric Endocrinology, American Academy of Paediatrics

Orcid: 0000-0001-6484-0445