Dr David MacIntyre’s research is focused on investigating the dynamic relationship between the microbiota of the reproductive tract and the maternal host during pregnancy and understanding how this relationship impacts pregnancy outcomes, including the risk of miscarriage and preterm birth. This is achieved through applying “systems” modelling approaches that involve the integration and analysis of genomic, transcriptomic, microbiomic and metabolic profiling data. Hopefully, this will lead to improved diagnostic and predictive tools useful for patient stratification and, ultimately, improved pregnancy outcomes.
Grațiela Grădișteanu Pîrcălăbioru, ICUB, University of Bucharest, Romania
Dr Grațiela Grădișteanu Pîrcălăbioru graduated from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Biology, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry (2009) and holds a Master’s Degree in Microbial Biotechnology and Genetics (2011). She started her research career in 2011 as a Research Assistant at Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland. She received her PhD from the School of Medicine and Medical Sciences at University College Dublin in 2015 (PhD Supervisor Prof. Ulla Knaus). She has participated in 5 European projects and has had three international scholarships: for Master’s Studies (Democritus University, Greece, 2010), for PhD studies (University College Dublin, Ireland, 2011-2015) and a postdoctoral fellowship (University College Dublin, Ireland, 2015-2016). Since 2016, she has been a Research Fellow at ICUB (Research Institute of the University of Bucharest). She has been actively involved in several national and international projects as projector director: Composite hydrogels based on inorganic nanoparticles and collagen with prolonged antimicrobial activity for the prevention of wound infections (2016-2018), Knowledge transfer in polymers used for biomedical engineering (2018-2019), ManuNet Horizon 2020- New textiles for parietal defects (2019-2021), Advanced techniques for early SARS-CoV2 detection (2020-2021), Type 2 Diabetes: a multi-omic view on host NAPH oxidases and gut microbiota (2021-2023). Her main research focuses are biomaterials and tissue engineering, microbiome changes in health and disease, in vivo and ex-vivo investigation of host-pathogen crosstalk during the infectious process, Point-of-Care testing and omic technologies.
Siobhain O’Mahony, Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, Funded Investigator, APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Ireland
Dr Siobhain’s main research areas assess outcomes of adverse events during early life, in particular, the disruption of the developing gut microbiota and how this can lead to miscommunication within the brain-gut-microbiota axis. The outcomes assessed include the neurodevelopment of children, stress-related disorders and visceral and somatic pain in adulthood and how these may be ameliorated through manipulation of the gut microbiota. She is also interested in gender-related differences in pain perception and how the microbiome may be used to predict outcomes following surgery. Her research group is based in the APC Microbiome Ireland and the department of Anatomy and Neuroscience in the Biosciences Institute and the Western Gateway Building, UCC.
Ana-Maria Zagrean, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania, and member of the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET)
Ana-Maria Zagrean MD, PhD, is a Professor in Physiology and Neuroscience at Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest. She graduated from medical school (1995) and got a PhD in Medical Sciences, Neurology (2003). She had a doctoral fellowship at Clinical Neuroscience Department, Karolinska Institute (2000–2001), and she was a Junior Fellow of The Physiological Society, UK (2005-2007), and Honorary Research Fellow (2006-2008) at the Medical Sciences Division, Birmingham University. She investigates the mechanisms regulating the brain responses to hypoxia/ischemia and altered states of excitability in the immature/mature brain, in vivo (cerebral ischemia, perinatal asphyxia, experimental epilepsy) and in vitro (oxygen-glucose deprivation), using genetic/epigenetic, biochemical, electrophysiological and behavioural approaches. More recently, she has studied the effects of metabolic and environmental stressors on neurodevelopment and brain recovery. As a founding member and secretary general of the National Neuroscience Society of Romania (SNN) since 2001, Ana-Maria Zagrean was engaged in all scientific and outreach events of this society. In 2012 she contributed to the FENS History Project “Historiography of Neurosciences in Eastern Europe, Romania, 1870-1970”. Recognising her neuroscience advocacy activity, she was invited to serve as an EDAB Term member in 2006.
Since 2017, Ana-Maria Zagrean has served as an IBRO-PERC member. She is also a member of the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).