Sarah Doyle, PhD

I am an assistant professor and lecturer in immunology in the Department of Clinical Medicine at Trinity College Dublin’s School of Medicine, where I lead the Inflammation and Ageing Research Group and serve as course coordinator for Junior Freshman Human Health and Disease. My scientific interests surround the molecular dialogue associated with how the immune system recognizes infection or injury, reacts, and directs an inflammatory response to resolve the insult.

One major aspect of my research focuses on elucidating the cellular mechanisms and signalling events that regulate the effects of Toll/interleukin 1 receptor (TIR) and pattern recognition receptor (PRR) family responses of the innate immune system to both pathogen-derived and endogenous damage-associated immunomodulators.

 I believe that identifying molecules involved in the signaling pathways initiated upon receptor activation, and understanding the underlying mechanisms of how signaling intermediates interact in both health and disease, can uncover new targets for therapeutic manipulation. For the last six years I have applied my knowledge of inflammation research to the field of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), with the hope that my experience will uncover novel therapeutic targets which can be rapidly translated into new medicines. Our understanding of cellular innate immune regulation of retinal diseases is in its infancy. Identifying this exciting research field has been an important step for establishing my independent research career.