Leading immunologist Luke O’Neill has won the prestigious RDS Irish Times Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence.
The award recognises Luke’s pioneering work on “the molecular understanding of innate immunity and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis”.
Luke O'Neill: making breakthroughs in medicine and microbiology
He has gained worldwide recognition for his breakthroughs in this exciting area of research. Luke’s work focuses on “Toll-like receptors”, or TLRs for short.
These are proteins which respond to infection and trigger inflammation and are required to eliminate invading microbes.
He will be conferred with his Medal and give a public lecture at the RDS in Dublin on 16 November at 7pm. The lecture is free of charge and open to the general public.
School days
Luke combines his research role with lecturing as Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). But as he explains on our “My Science Career” website, he didn’t particularly enjoy biology in the early part of secondary school.
That changed by the time he completed the Leaving Cert, and Luke credits his biology teacher as playing a big part in his love for biology.
“I liked the exactness of science and also the wonders to be found in biology,” he explains.
Luke then studied natural science at TCD as an undergraduate, and on graduation he had already decided that research was what he wanted to do.
“The idea of discovering and seeing something no-one had seen before, and contributing to knowledge in the world really stimulated me,” he says
TCD has become a leading international centre for immunology research. Luke and two colleagues at the university formed a campus company which has grown into Opsona Therapeutics, an innovative and dynamic drug development company.
The Boyle Medal – previous winners
The Boyle Medal was inaugurated in 1899. It recognises scientific research of exceptional merit and since its inception has been awarded to 37 distinguished scientists. These include:
- George Johnstone Stoney (in 1899) – the Irish physicist was the first winner of the award, and is most famous for introducing the term electron as the fundamental unit quantity of electricity
- John Joly (1911) – besides being famous for his development of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer, Joly developed techniques that led to radio carbon dating and colour photography
- Patrick Cunningham (1996) – Dr Cunningham is the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Irish Government, is Professor of Animal Genetics at TCD and is chairman of IdentiGEN Ltd, a company which uses DNA techniques for tracing food and animals
Learn more
Read the MyScienceCareeer.ie interview with Professor O’Neill, from what he studied at school to his research today
