Luke O'Neill

Dr. Luke O’Neill is the chair of biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin and leads the college’s Inflammation Research Group. He has a PhD in pharmacology from the University of London and carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge, in the U.K.

His research is in the area of the molecular basis of inflammation, with a focus on innate immunity, toll-like receptors, inflammasomes, and metabolic reprogramming in macrophage activation. In 2018, he was named by Clarivate / Thompson Reuters as one of the world’s most influential scientists, being in the top 1% in immunology. Dr. O’Neill has won numerous awards for his research, including the European Federation of Immunology Societies medal, the International Cytokine and Interferon Society Milstein Award, the Royal Dublin Society Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence, and the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Life Sciences. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 2016 and also recently published a best-selling popular-science book, Humanology: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Amazing Existence.