Fundamental Discovery

Overview of Pillar 1: Fundamental Discovery

This Pillar focuses on carrying out fundamental research into basic biological processes. Specific areas of expertise include molecular genetics and genomics, biochemistry, cell biology, drug design and therapies and neurobiology. Research is conducted in appropriate in vitro and in vivo microbial, human and animal models.  

Pillar Lead: Dr Elaine Dunleavy

Dr. Elaine Dunleavy is a cell, molecular and developmental biologist interested in the regulation of centromeres, essential chromosomal loci that oversee proper chromosome segregation during cell division.

Dr. Dunleavy has a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Galway and an MSc and PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Edinburgh. She completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the Curie Institute in France and at the University of California Berkeley in the USA, before starting her research group at the Centre for Chromosome Biology in 2013. Elaine has consistently attained research funding from both Wellcome and Research Ireland. Her laboratory employs the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a genetically tractable experimental system. Her team explores fundamental mechanisms of chromosome segregation in spermatogenesis, which is the production of mature sperm. This research is important, as errors in spermatogenesis can give rise to defective sperm and zygotes resulting in infertility or birth defects. More recently her group has begun to work in bulls as a model for human spermatogenesis.

Dr. Dunleavy is the Programme Director for the BSc in Genetics and Genomics at the University of Galway and contributes to several modules delivered thought the BSc in Biochemistry pathway. She is also the Chair of the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences EDI Committee.