About
I am a multidisciplinary Nutritional Scientist with broad interests in the molecular mechanisms underpinning the roles of dietary nutrients in health and disease.
Originally from Ireland, I was mentored by the eminent nutritional biochemist, Prof Robert J. Cousins and earned my Ph.D. from the University of Florida in the US. Awarded the prestigious Christine Mirzayan Science Policy fellowship, after my PhD I worked at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC where my interests in science policy and the prevention of childhood obesity were fostered. I subsequently did postdoctoral research first as an intramural fellow at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland and then as a Marie Curie Transfer of Knowledge fellow at NUI-Maynooth in Ireland.
I moved to the UK to start my first laboratory at the University of Surrey in 2008 with a focus on what was then termed nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), now the most common cause of liver disease affecting an estimated 30% of adults and 10% of children worldwide. In 2016 I moved to the University of Leeds where I held multiple leadership positions and was promoted to Professor. I joined the University of Liverpool in September 2024 as Chair in Nutritional Biochemistry.
I am currently a Trustee for the British Nutrition Foundation and have previously held elected positions on the Advisory Councils for both the Nutrition Society and the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN), as well as been a General Assembly Member of the European Food Information Council (EUFIC). In 2018, I was the recipient of the Nutrition Society Silver Medal for Research Excellence in a Young Investigator.