Luke O'Neill (scientist)

Last updated

Luke O'Neill

FRS MRIA
Professor Luke O'Neill FRS (cropped).jpg
O'Neill in 2016
Born (1964-06-17) 17 June 1964 (age 59)
Dublin, Ireland
Education
Alma mater
Spouse
Margaret Worrall
​
(m. 1993)​
Children2
Awards EMBO Member (2005)
Scientific career
Fields Immunology [1]
Institutions
Thesis Characterisation of interleukin-1-induced prostaglandin E₂ release in human synovial cells  (1988)
Website people.tcd.ie/laoneill

Luke Anthony John O'Neill FRS MRIA [2] (born 17 June 1964) is an Irish biochemist. He has been a professor of biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry [3] and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin since 2009. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Early life and education

O'Neill was born on 17 June 1964 in Dublin, Ireland, to Kevin O'Neill and Carmel O'Neill ( née  Sherry). [8] He was educated at St Peter's School and Presentation College in Bray, County Wicklow, and went to Trinity College Dublin, [8] where he was awarded an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences (Biochemistry) in 1985. [9] He completed his postgraduate study at the University of London, [8] where he was awarded a PhD in pharmacology, for research investigating the characterisation of prostaglandin E2 release induced by interleukin-1 in human synovial cells, in 1988. [10] Following his PhD, he worked at the postdoctoral researcher at the Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge funded by the Medical Research Council. [9]

Research

O'Neill's research investigates inflammation, a highly complex process that is provoked in the body during infection by bacteria and viruses but also in response to major trauma and injury. Inflammation restores us to health but for largely unknown reasons it can go rogue and give rise to a whole range of inflammatory diseases which remain difficult to treat. [2] [11]

He has worked on the innate immune system, which lies at the heart of inflammation. He has uncovered new molecules and biochemical processes that are triggered by sensors of infection and tissue injury, including the toll-like receptors [12] [13] [14] [15] and inflammasomes, and the signals they drive that stimulate inflammation, notably cytokines in the interleukin-1 family. He has made pioneering discoveries in the area of metabolic reprogramming in immunity and immunometabolism. He is using his findings to help in the effort to develop novel anti-inflammatory medicines. [2] He has co-founded Inflazome with Matt Cooper which developed NLRP3 inhibitors and was acquired by Roche Ltd in 2020, and Sitryx with Houman Ashrafian, Johnathan Powell, Jeff Rathmell and Mike Rosenblum.

In 2023 he was appointed Chief Scientific Officer of Senda Biosciences, a company pioneering programmable medicines (https://www.sendabiosciences.com).

His research has been funded by the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), the European Research Council (ERC), the Wellcome Trust and GlaxoSmithKline. [4]

Awards and honours

O'Neill was awarded the Royal Dublin Society & The Irish Times Robert Boyle Medal for scientific excellence in 2009, [16] the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Life Sciences in 2012 and the European Federation of Immunology Societies (EFIS) Medal in 2014. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA) in 2004 [17] and the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) in 2005. [18] O'Neill was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2016. [2]

In 2019 he won the Landsteiner Award from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 2021 he won the UCD Biological Society George Sigerson Award for Inspiring Aspiring Scientists.

In 2022, he was made an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Bath and was presented with an honorary lifetime membership award by the International Cytokine and Interferon Society (https://cytokinesociety.org/luke-oneill-2022/?amp=1).

In 2023 he was appointed to the governing body of the European Research Council, the European Union's premier funder of fundamental research (https://ireland.representation.ec.europa.eu/news-and-events/news/professor-luke-oneill-appointed-governing-body-european-research-council-2022-12-07_en) and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by UMass Chan Medical School. https://www.telegram.com/story/news/2023/06/04/class-of-2023-of-umass-chan-medical-school/70286515007/

Public engagement

O'Neill has a passion to engage with the general public on scientific topics. He has a weekly science slot with Pat Kenny on the Irish national radio station Newstalk. In 2018, he published Humanology: A Scientist's Guide to our Amazing Existence with Gill publishers. [19] In 2019, he published a science book for children, The Great Irish Science Book with Gill. [20] From 2020 onwards, he wrote for the Sunday Independent concerning the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland. [21] He contracted COVID-19 himself in December 2021, and experienced symptoms. [22]

In 2020 he won the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award for best popular non-fiction book for Never Mind the B*ll*cks, Here's the Science, published by Gill, which was a best seller. [23] He also won the Science Foundation Ireland Science Communicator of the Year Award, for his media work on COVID19.

In 2021 he published Keep Calm and Trust the Science: A Remarkable Year in the Life of an Immunologist, which is his diary covering the COVID-19 pandemic.[ citation needed ]

Personal life

O'Neil married Margaret Worrall in 1993. They have two sons.

Related Research Articles

Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) play a crucial role in the proper function of the innate immune system. PRRs are germline-encoded host sensors, which detect molecules typical for the pathogens. They are proteins expressed mainly by cells of the innate immune system, such as dendritic cells, macrophages, monocytes, neutrophils, as well as by epithelial cells, to identify two classes of molecules: pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), which are associated with microbial pathogens, and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), which are associated with components of host's cells that are released during cell damage or death. They are also called primitive pattern recognition receptors because they evolved before other parts of the immune system, particularly before adaptive immunity. PRRs also mediate the initiation of antigen-specific adaptive immune response and release of inflammatory cytokines.

Dermot P. Kelleher FMedSci is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Vice-President, Health at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MYD88</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MYD88) is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the MYD88 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interleukin 23 subunit alpha</span>

Interleukin-23 subunit alpha is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IL23A gene. The protein is also known as IL-23p19. It is one of the two subunits of the cytokine Interleukin-23.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toll-like receptor 4</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Toll-like receptor 4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the TLR4 gene. TLR4 is a transmembrane protein, member of the toll-like receptor family, which belongs to the pattern recognition receptor (PRR) family. Its activation leads to an intracellular signaling pathway NF-κB and inflammatory cytokine production which is responsible for activating the innate immune system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TOLLIP</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Toll interacting protein, also known as TOLLIP, is an inhibitory adaptor protein that in humans is encoded by the TOLLIP gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IRAK2</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase-like 2 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the IRAK2 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SIGIRR</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Single Ig IL-1-related receptor (SIGIRR), also called Toll/Interleukin-1 receptor 8 (TIR8) or Interleukin-1 receptor 8 (IL-1R8), is transmembrane protein encoded by gene SIGIRR, which modulate inflammation, immune response, and tumorigenesis of colonic epithelial cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opsona Therapeutics</span>

Opsona Therapeutics was a drug development company specialising in the human immune system and new drugs and vaccines to prevent and treat autoimmune/inflammatory conditions, cancers and infectious diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interleukin-1 family</span> Group of cytokines playing a key role in the regulation of immune and inflammatory responses

The Interleukin-1 family is a group of 11 cytokines that plays a central role in the regulation of immune and inflammatory responses to infections or sterile insults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IL1RL1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Interleukin 1 receptor-like 1, also known as IL1RL1 and ST2, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IL1RL1 gene.

Members of the very wide interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R) family are characterized by extracellular immunoglobulin-like domains and intracellular Toll/Interleukin-1R (TIR) domain. It is a group of structurally homologous proteins, conserved throughout the species as it was identified from plants to mammals. Proteins of this family play important role in host defence, injury and stress. There are four main groups of TIR domain-containing proteins in animals; Toll-like receptors, Interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R), cytosolic adaptor proteins and insect and nematode Toll. Each of these groups is involved mainly in host defence; Toll receptors are also involved in embryogenesis.

Brigitta Stockinger, FMedSci, FRS, is a molecular immunologist in the Francis Crick Institute in London. Stockinger's lab focus on understanding how certain immune cells, called T cells, develop and function as well as investigating how diet and other environmental factors can affect the way the immune system works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akiko Iwasaki</span> Immunobiologist

Akiko Iwasaki is a Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University. She is also a principal investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research interests include innate immunity, autophagy, inflammasomes, sexually transmitted infections, herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus, respiratory virus infections, influenza infection, T cell immunity, commensal bacteria, COVID-19 and Long COVID.

The interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R) associated kinase (IRAK) family plays a crucial role in the protective response to pathogens introduced into the human body by inducing acute inflammation followed by additional adaptive immune responses. IRAKs are essential components of the Interleukin-1 receptor signaling pathway and some Toll-like receptor signaling pathways. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) detect microorganisms by recognizing specific pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and IL-1R family members respond the interleukin-1 (IL-1) family cytokines. These receptors initiate an intracellular signaling cascade through adaptor proteins, primarily, MyD88. This is followed by the activation of IRAKs. TLRs and IL-1R members have a highly conserved amino acid sequence in their cytoplasmic domain called the Toll/Interleukin-1 (TIR) domain. The elicitation of different TLRs/IL-1Rs results in similar signaling cascades due to their homologous TIR motif leading to the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and the IκB kinase (IKK) complex, which initiates a nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and AP-1-dependent transcriptional response of pro-inflammatory genes. Understanding the key players and their roles in the TLR/IL-1R pathway is important because the presence of mutations causing the abnormal regulation of Toll/IL-1R signaling leading to a variety of acute inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

Katherine A. Fitzgerald is an Irish-born American molecular biologist and virologist. She is a professor of medicine currently working in the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is also the director of the Program in Innate Immunity.

Soumen Basak is an Indian immunologist and virologist at the National Institute of Immunology (NII). A former fellow of the Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance, he is known for his studies on the NF-kappaB signaling system.

Tania H. Watts is a Canadian Immunologist, Professor at the University of Toronto, past President of the Canadian Society for Immunology and from 2009-2019 held the Sanofi Pasteur Chair in Human Immunology at the University of Toronto. Tania Watts holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Anti-viral Immunity and was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists, class of 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mihai Netea</span>

Mihai G. Netea is a Romanian Dutch physician and professor at Radboud University Nijmegen, specialized in infectious disease, immunology, and global health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vishva Dixit</span> Kenyan molecular biologist

Vishva Mitra Dixit is a physician of Indian origin who is the current Vice President of Discovery Research at Genentech.

References

  1. ↑ Brint, Elizabeth K; Xu, Damo; Liu, Haiying; Dunne, Aisling; McKenzie, Andrew N J; O'Neill, Luke A J; Liew, Foo Y (2004). "ST2 is an inhibitor of interleukin 1 receptor and Toll-like receptor 4 signaling and maintains endotoxin tolerance". Nature Immunology . 5 (4): 373–9. doi:10.1038/ni1050. PMID   15004556. S2CID   29364769.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Anon (2016). "Professor Luke O'Neill FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 29 April 2016. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." -- "Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ↑ Luke O'Neill publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  4. 1 2 "Professor Luke O'Neill: Chair of Biochemistry (1960)". Dublin: tcd.ie. Archived from the original on 15 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Interview with Professor Luke O'Neill of Trinity College Dublin on YouTube
  6. ↑ In Conversation: Professor Luke O'Neill on YouTube
  7. ↑ "Luke Anthony John O'Neill". knowledgetransferireland.com. Archived from the original on 23 May 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 "O'Neill, Prof. Luke Anthony John" . Who's Who . A & C Black. 2022. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U287303.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  9. 1 2 O'Neill, LA (2009). "Luke A. J. O'Neill" (PDF). Journal of Biological Chemistry . 284 (13): 8209. doi: 10.1074/jbc.R800070200 . PMC   2659175 . PMID   19008216. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 May 2016.
  10. ↑ O'Neill, Luke Anthony John (1988). Characterisation of interleukin-1-induced prostaglandin E₂ release in human synovial cells (PhD thesis). University of London. OCLC   940166978.
  11. ↑ O'Neill, L.A.J; Kaltschmidt, C. (1997). "NF-kB: a crucial transcription factor for glial and neuronal cell function". Trends in Neurosciences. 20 (6): 252–258. doi:10.1016/S0166-2236(96)01035-1. PMID   9185306. S2CID   53144143.
  12. ↑ Fitzgerald, Katherine A.; Palsson-McDermott, Eva M.; Bowie, Andrew G.; Jefferies, Caroline A.; Mansell, Ashley S.; Brady, Gareth; Brint, Elizabeth; Dunne, Aisling; Gray, Pearl; Harte, Mary T.; McMurray, Diane; Smith, Dirk E.; Sims, John E.; Bird, Timothy A.; O'Neill, Luke A. J. (2001). "Mal (MyD88-adapter-like) is required for Toll-like receptor-4 signal transduction". Nature. 413 (6851): 78–83. Bibcode:2001Natur.413...78F. doi:10.1038/35092578. PMID   11544529. S2CID   4333764.
  13. ↑ Palsson-McDermott, Eva M.; O'Neill, Luke A. J. (2004). "Signal transduction by the lipopolysaccharide receptor, Toll-like receptor-4". Immunology. 113 (2): 153–162. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2567.2004.01976.x. PMC   1782563 . PMID   15379975. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  14. ↑ O'Neill, Luke A. J.; Bowie, Andrew G. (2007). "The family of five: TIR-domain-containing adaptors in Toll-like receptor signalling". Nature Reviews Immunology. 7 (5): 353–364. doi: 10.1038/nri2079 . PMID   17457343. S2CID   5872298.
  15. ↑ Liew, Foo Y.; Xu, Damo; Brint, Elizabeth K.; O'Neill, Luke A. J. (2005). "Negative regulation of Toll-like receptor-mediated immune responses". Nature Reviews Immunology. 5 (6): 446–458. doi:10.1038/nri1630. PMID   15928677. S2CID   10220241.
  16. ↑ Boyle Medal Laureates Archived 2 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine Royal Dublin Society
  17. ↑ Downes, John (17 March 2004). "20 new members elected to Royal Irish Academy". The Irish Times . Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  18. ↑ Anon (2005). "EMBO Member Luke O'Neill: Trinity College, Dublin, EMBO 2005". Heidelberg: embo.org.
  19. ↑ O'Neill, Luke (2018). Humanology: A Scientist's Guide to our Amazing Existence. Gill Books. ISBN   978-0-7171-8015-8.
  20. ↑ O'Neill, Luke (2019). The Great Irish Science Book. Gill Books. ISBN   978-0-7171-8558-0.
  21. ↑ Examples include:
  22. ↑ O'Neill, Luke (19 December 2021). "Covid might have got me in the end, but science saved me". Sunday Independent . Retrieved 19 December 2021. My Covid story began almost two weeks ago when I was identified as a close contact by someone at work. I was in a meeting with them that went on for about 45 minutes in a well-ventilated room with me over two metres away, so it just shows you. The HSE sent me three antigen tests. I took the first one and it was negative. I went about my business. But the second one I took two days later, as per the instructions, was positive... As the day went on, the symptoms began. My nose began running like a tap. Also sneezing. Then a dry cough began that was quite uncomfortable. And a thumping headache. No fever and no loss of smell or taste. I stayed in bed. These symptoms continued for about two days, and also fatigue. I felt wiped out for a day or so. But after three days I began to feel better... I've been symptom-free now for four days and through my 10-day isolation.
  23. ↑ O'Neill, Luke (2021). Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here's the Science. Swift Press. ISBN   9781800750760.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.