Luke A. J. O'Neill


Luke Anthony John O'Neill is professor of biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin.

Education

O'Neill was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he was awarded an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences in 1985. He completed his postgraduate study at the University of London where he was awarded a PhD in Pharmacology for the research investigating the characterisation of interleukin-1-induced prostaglandin E₂ release in human synovial cells in 1988. Following his PhD, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge funded by the Medical Research Council.

Research

O'Neill's research investigates inflammation, a highly complex process that is provoked in the body during infection by bacteria and viruses but also in response to major trauma and injury. Inflammation restores us to health but for largely unknown reasons it can go rogue and give rise to a whole range of inflammatory diseases which remain difficult to treat.
He has worked on the innate immune system, which lies at the heart of inflammation. He has uncovered new molecules and biochemical processes that are triggered by sensors of infection and tissue injury, including the toll-like receptors and inflammasomes, and the signals they drive that stimulate inflammation, notably cytokines in the interleukin-1 family. He has made pioneering discoveries in the area of metabolic reprogramming in immunity and immunometabolism. He is using his findings to help in the effort to develop novel anti-inflammatory medicines. He has co-founded Inflazome with Matt Cooper and Sitryx with Houman Ashrafian, Johnathan Powell, Jeff Rathmell and Mike Rosenblum.
His research has been funded by the Science Foundation Ireland, the European Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and GlaxoSmithKline.

Awards and honours

O'Neill was awarded the Royal Dublin Society & The Irish Times Robert Boyle Medal for scientific excellence in 2009, the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Life Sciences in 2012 and the European Federation of Immunology Societies Medal in 2014. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2004 and the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 2005. O'Neill was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016.
He received The Milstein Award from the International Cytokine and Interferon Society and the Barcroft Medal from Queen's University Belfast in 2018. In 2019 he gave the Landsteiner lecture at the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna.

Public engagement

O'Neill has a passion to engage with the general public on scientific topics. He has a weekly science slot with Pat Kenny on the Irish national radio station Newstalk. In 2018 he published Humanology: A Scientist’s Guide to our Amazing Existence with Gill publishers.In 2019 he published a science book for children, The Great Irish Science Book with Gill.