ProfessorGeraldine Butler

Geraldine Butler (BA (Mod) 1984, PhD 1989) is Professor of Genetics in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, and a Principal Investigator in the Conway Institute. Her lab uses a combination of next generation sequencing, comparative genomics and gene editing approaches to study evolution and virulence of fungi, particularly pathogenic Candida species. Prof Butler serves as section editor for the journal PLoS Genetics and as academic editor for mSphere, and she has previously been an editor of PLoS One and Scientific Reports. She regularly reviews submissions to international journals and research agencies, and she has participated in assessment panels for the Medical Research Council (UK) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France). She is Chair of the International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) of the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Exeter.

Prof Butler is an active teacher. She led the introduction of the single honours degree in Genetics in UCD in 2006, and acted as Head of Subject until 2017. She contributes to teaching in 6 undergraduate modules. She led the development of two undergraduate research modules in which students identify yeast from Irish soil, and sequence the genomes of selected isolates. She was director of the Wellcome Trust funded PhD Programme in Computational Infection Biology, and she is currently a participant in the SFI Centre for Research Training in Genomics Data Science. The Butler group was a participant in the Horizon 2020 OPATHY International Training Network, 'From Omics to Patient: Improving Diagnostics of Pathogenic Yeasts'.

Prof Butler was elected Fellow of the Society of Biology in 2011, and member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) in 2015. She sat on the council of the RIA from 2016-2019, and she is currently part of the membership committee. Prof Butler was elected to the Governing Authority of UCD in 2019.

Brief CV
1980-1984 BA (Mod) in Genetics, First class Honours, Trinity College Dublin
1984-1989 PhD, Genetics, Trinity College Dublin.
1989-1991 Thurneau Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
1992-2002 College Lecturer, Department of Biochemistry, UCD
2000 Visiting fellow, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2002-2006 Senior Lecturer, School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, Conway Institute, UCD
2006-2012 Associate Professor, School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, Conway Institute,
UCD2012-present, Professor, School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, Conway Institute, UCD
2011-2019 Director, Wellcome Trust PhD Programme in Computational Infection Biology.

Butler Lab Web Page | http://butler.ucd.ie
Candida Gene Order Browser | http://cgob.ucd.ie

Keywords: Candida, genomics, evolution, transcriptomics, gene expression, biofilms, Conway, genetics