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UCD Conway Institute of Biomolecular & Biomedical Research

Driving Discovery, Impacting Health

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Research

Transforming Health Through Interdisciplinary Research

Our discoveries pave the way for earlier diagnoses, better treatments, and healthier lives.

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Technology

Behind every breakthrough is powerful technology.

Centrally managed core technology platforms equipped with leading tools to enable researchers ask bold questions—and find game-changing answers.

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Engagement

Connecting Science with Society

Actively involving patients, support-givers, teachers, and pupils to ensure research reflects public perspectives and has real-world impact 

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Education

Empowering the Next Generation of Biomedical Researchers

Join a vibrant, interdisciplinary community where innovation meets mentorship

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Innovation

Partnering to bring discovery to application

Enabling the translation of research in a world-class ecosystem for innovation that drives enterprise development.

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Latest News

Photos of UCD Conway Fellows who are recipients of the Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme. 18May
Five Conway Fellows awarded €4.75M for health research projects with transformative potential

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, has announced funding of €20 million for 22 high-risk, high-reward research projects through the Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme.
Three researchers who won award at an Enterprise Ireland Spinout Showcase 11May
Dr Fiona McGillicuddy receives Spinout Showcase award from Enterprise Ireland

Dr Fiona McGillicuddy received her award for her work on MetHealth, a next-generation immunometabolic diagnostics technology.
A visualisation of the ‘courier system’ that cells use to deliver coherent biological messages between each other. 21Apr
Conway Fellows discover new ‘courier system’ that cells use to transfer important biological messages

Researchers at University College Dublin in collaboration with an international team of researchers have discovered a previously unknown ‘courier system’ that cells use to deliver coherent biological messages between each other, opening new possibilities for medicine and biotechnology.
A group of researchers standing together with an award. 20Apr
2026 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award for Technology Used to Identify Parasitic Infection in Animals on Farms

They received the Award for the development of a novel faecal egg count device which was licenced to CF Pharma and is now being sold globally by Telenostic, a CF Pharma spin-out, to identify parasitic infection in animals on farms.
Two researchers standing with the NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award. 20Apr
Conway Fellows Receive 2026 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award for Nanomedicine Breakthrough

Conway Fellows, Professor Kenneth Dawson and Associate Professor Yan Yan have been named as recipients of the 2026 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award.
An illustration of a human silhouetted with advanced technology. 14Apr
Making AI in Life Sciences Open and Sustainable

An international group of scientists published a perspective in Nature Methods on how scientists use artificial intelligence (AI) to study biology and medicine and the challenges and opportunities on the road ahead.
A photo of cells under the microscope. 02Apr
The cell sensor that turns healing into harm

A special cell 'gripper' called α5β1 integrins helps fibroblasts detect aligned fibres — a key step that can turn normal repair into fibrosis.
Three people standing in front of an old building. 23Mar
Dr Jennifer Lynch awarded Royal Society – Research Ireland University Research Fellowship to support pioneering work in cancer treatment

The aim of the project is to uncover new weaknesses in cancer cells that could lead to more effective targeted treatments for patients with acute myeloid leukaemia.
Street art behind mounted street lamp 12Mar
Research Ireland Discover funding for ‘Behind Walls’, a cross-community art:science fusion

Led by Dr Maria Prencipe, this project will see street artist ACHES and graphic designer Cian Ryan collaborate with local youth, patient advocates, and cancer researchers to embed lived experiences and scientific insights in two large scale street art murals.

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Research Spotlights

Exploding cells in a twisted shape
Targeting RNA can produce less toxic new drugs

The development of new drugs based on targeting non-coding RNA can produce less toxic, and more specific therapies for cancers and diseases.

Fruit fly examination
Unlocking new treatments for MND inside fruit fly DNA 

Fruit flies are tiny creatures, but the questions we are asking – how do neurons fail, how to fix them – are massively important for MND research.

Measuring tape and pills
Tackling obesity as a brain disease

Deciphering the links between the brain, gut and obesity is challenging how obesity has been thought of and treated in our society. 
Circles on circular plates
Taking the fight to deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that by 2050, there could be 50 million deaths annually due to antibiotic resistance. Professor Siobhán McClean is fighting to tackle some of these drug-resistant pathogens threatening so many lives.

Bone cancer
New strategies to treat a deadly childhood cancer

Osteosarcoma, a rare, deadly paediatric bone cancer has defied new approaches to its treatment ever since chemotherapy was introduced in the 1970s. Dr Fiona Freeman aims to change that.
Woman in large facility
Safer, faster, better ways to image and diagnose disease 

Working in parallel on two new game changing technologies that will enable quicker, safer, less painful and more precise micro-biopsies and visualise changes in individual cells caused by disease. 

Weighing scales
Inflammation is a better indicator of health than BMI in obesity

The level of low-grade, chronic inflammation in the body is a better indicator of metabolic health than simply measuring body mass index, or BMI.

AI generated image human skeleton
Inflammatory bowel disease

Preventing the GI tract springing a leak by developing new drug treatments that reinforce the epithelial layer.

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Dr Nicola Fletcher image
Traditional pathology is labour-intensive. We want to change that completely using new technologies like micro-biopsies and soft x-ray microscopy in tandem.
Dr Nicola Fletcher, Conway Fellow, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine
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Events

An event graphic for a research symposium. 27May
All-Ireland Chromatin Consortium Annual Symposium 2026

The 5th All-Ireland Chromatin Consortium symposium, hosted this year in the UCD Conway Institute.
Poster for CLASS series of lectures 26May
Necrotising Enterocolitis: Unravelling a complex disease to improve outcomes in preterm babies

Hear from the Chair of Paediatrics at UCD and Consultant Neonatologist at Children’s Health Ireland.
A graphic promoting the Flow Cytometry Summer School. 13May
Flow Cytometry Summer School 2026 - Registrations now open

Registration is open for research students, postdoctoral staff and technicians until 5pm on Friday, 12 June.
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UCD Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research

University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
T: +353 1 716 6700 | E: conway@ucd.ie