ProfessorEamonn Gormley

Eamonn has worked at UCD since 1998 on tuberculosis in cattle and wildlife. He completed his Honours degree and PhD in the Department of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin specialising in genetic engineering of bacteria. From 1988-1991 he carried out post-doctoral work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris working firstly on virulence factors of listeria and then on horizontal gene transfer of antibiotic resistance between disease causing microbes. His work was one of the first to demonstrate natural transfer of antibiotic resistance between different bacterial species.

From 1991-1998 he worked at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand researching into the immune responses of cattle vaccinated against tuberculosis with BCG. He returned to Ireland to lead a research program aimed at the development of a vaccine against tuberculosis for use in animals. This project is carried out on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine (DAFM), as part of the national strategy to eradicate tuberculosis from the national herd. He was Scientific Director for the successful DAFM County Kilkenny oral BCG vaccine trial, the largest wildlife BCG field vaccination trial ever conducted worldwide. He continues to provide scientific direction to the DAFM national badger TB vaccination programme. He also directs the Tuberculosis Diagnostics and Immunology Research Laboratory at UCD which carries out IFN-g testing on the national herd as part of the DAFM tuberculosis eradication program.

He has been involved in many national and international projects on tuberculosis in cattle, wildlife and humans and has active collaborations with groups in the US, South Africa, EU and New Zealand. He has been a member of several national and international scientific working groups providing expert advice on various aspects of tuberculosis diagnosis and control for DAFM, the Dept for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs UK (DEFRA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES). He is regularly invited by cattle industries in Central and South America and China to discuss and advise on TB control strategies.

In recent years he has collaborated in studies using advanced genetic technologies to investigate bovine host immuno-genetic responses to infection with Mycobacterium bovis (tuberculosis). One of the key objectives of this work is to identify genetic signatures of disease resistance and / or biomarkers for improved diagnostic tests. His laboratory is recognised internationally as a leader in diagnosis and control of animal tuberculosis.