Ireland – not ‘immune’ to scientific excellence
Ireland’s performance in immunology research on the world-stage is ‘outstanding’, according to a recent report from Thomson Reuters. Their ‘Essential Science Indicators’ database revealed that Ireland ranks third in the top twenty countries worldwide in terms of citations of original journal articles during the period January 1999 to October 2009. Articles from Ireland, along with Switzerland and the US, received over 25 citations each, which is an impressive measure of the impact of Irish research in the immunology field.
But who are the faces behind these articles? One of them is SFI-funded Professor Luke O’Neill of Trinity College Dublin (TCD), the only Irish university to be ranked in the top 1% of institutions in the world for immunology research. Prof. O’Neill was presented with the prestigious RDS Irish Times Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence in November last year and in the same month was awarded the SFI Researcher of the Year.
Commenting on the popularity of his highly-cited article in Nature Reviews Immunology, Prof. O’Neill said ‘It's a synthesis of knowledge—probably the biggest one in terms of content published in 2007.’
Other SFI-funded researchers in this space include Prof. Kingston Mills, Dr. Andrew Bowie, Dr. Ed Lavelle and Dr. Clair Gardiner, all located in the ‘immunology hub’ of TCD. Collectively these investigators have published in such well-regarded journals as Immunity, Nature Genetics, Journal of Immunology and PNAS, and their expertise and others, in collaboration with their industry partners, provides the foundation for the Immunology Research Centre (IRC) at TCD. This SFI-funded Strategic Research Cluster (SRC), spearheaded by Prof. Mills, will be a major engine to drive Ireland’s immunology success into the future. Continued fostering of Ireland’s immunology talent and investment in their research will ensure Ireland continues to reside among the top nations in immunology.
