Professor Fergus Shanahan is Director of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) Microbiome Institute at University College Cork.
He is a medical graduate of University College Dublin and then trained in clinical immunology at McMaster University in Canada. Later at the University of California he specialised in gastroenterology.
Prof Shanahan has produced more than 500 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, in addition to books, chapters and invited editorials. He was named as one of the top 50 Irish and Irish-Americans in the life sciences industry, and was SFI’s researcher of the year in 2013. In 2016 he was awarded the Royal Irish Academy’s Gold Medal. This award was in recognition of his demonstrable, internationally recognised, outstanding scholarly contribution to his field and a testament to his excellence and impact over the previous three decades.
Through the APC institute in UCC Prof Shanahan has helped to place Ireland at the forefront of studies in microbiome science and inflammatory bowel disease. His research interests include mucosal immunology, gut microbiota, and inflammatory bowel disease and his scope extends across a broad spectrum of human health and disease.
Professor Shanahan will present the 2018 John J Ryan Distinguished Lecture at RCSI Research Day.