PhD Candidate
Niamh completed her BSc (Hon) Biomedical Science at Maynooth University, Ireland in 2010 and commenced her PhD at the University of Western Australia, and the Systems Immunology team at Telethon Kids in 2016.
Her interests are on the maturation of the infant innate immune system, and how it can be impacted by respiratory viral infections during early childhood, a critical window for asthma and allergy development.
The focus of her work is to contribute to developing a preventative treatment for asthma, through innate immune training during infancy. To do this, she is combining immunology with transcriptomics and network graph theory to understand the mechanisms of action of a therapeutic intervention aimed at driving immune maturation during infancy as a potential asthma preventative.
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Publications
July 2022
Protection against severe infant lower respiratory tract infections by immune training: Mechanistic studies
Results from recent clinical studies suggest potential efficacy of immune training (IT)-based approaches for protection against severe lower respiratory tract infections in infants, but underlying mechanisms are unclear.
Published research Pregnancy and Early Life Immunology Human Immunology Systems Immunology Immune system Respiratory viral infections Cancer Immunology and BiologyMay 2020Airway Epithelial Cell Immunity Is Delayed During Rhinovirus Infection in Asthma and COPD
We propose that propensity for viral exacerbations of asthma and COPD relate to delayed expression of epithelial cell innate anti-viral immune genes
Asthma Published research Systems ImmunologyDecember 2019QuantSeq. 3′ Sequencing combined with Salmon provides a fast, reliable approach for high throughput RNA expression analysis
QuantSeq, coupled with a fast quantification method such as Salmon, should provide a viable alternative to traditional RNA-Seq in many applications
Published research Systems ImmunologySeptember 2019Primary prevention of severe lower respiratory illnesses in at-risk infants using the immunomodulator OM-85
The effects of OM-85 were strongest in the first winter season, with a trend for fewer children in the OM-85 group to have sLRIs and URIs
Published research Human ImmunologyMarch 2019Upper Airway Cell Transcriptomics Identify a Major New Immunological Phenotype with Strong Clinical Correlates in Young Children with Acute Wheezing
Asthma exacerbations in children can be divided into IRF7hi versus IRF7lo phenotypes with associated differences in clinical phenotypes
Asthma Published research Systems ImmunologyJanuary 2019CD8+XCR1neg Dendritic Cells Express High Levels of Toll-Like Receptor 5 and a Unique Complement of Endocytic Receptors
Our data demonstrate that CD8+XCR1neg DCs possess a unique pattern of endocytic receptors and a restricted TLR profile that is particularly enriched for TLR5
Children's Cancers Published research Systems Immunology Cancer Immunology and BiologySeptember 2018Airway Microbiota Dynamics Uncover a Critical Window for Interplay of Pathogenic Bacteria and Allergy in Childhood Respiratory Disease
To complement early allergic sensitization, monitoring NPM composition may enable early detection and intervention in high-risk children
Asthma Published research Human Immunology Systems Immunology