Professor Dolores Cahill - The Harm of the Coronavirus Lockdown

Professor Dolores Cahill received her Honours degree in Molecular Genetics from Trinity College Dublin (1989) and her PhD in Immunology & Biotechnology from Dublin City University (1994). She was awarded an EU ‘Human Capital and Mobility’ Post-doctoral Fellow, Technical University, Munich, Germany (1994-1995).

Since 2005 – present, she is Professor of Translational Science at UCD School of Medicine. Prof. Cahill is internationally recognised for her biomedical research, publications and patent record is in life sciences, biotechnology and in personalised healthcare and biomarkers (PHB), proteomics, biotechnology, high content protein and antibody arrays, and their biomedical, diagnostic and clinical applications.

Prof. Cahill has been involved in Scientific and Research Strategy and Policy Development and Evaluation for over 10 years. She is a member of the EU Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Science Committee (2017-2019). In 2018, she was elected by the IMI SC to be Vice Chair of the IMI Scientific Committee (2019-2020).

In the Strategy, Policy and Global engagement area, from October 2013 to end September 2014, Prof. Cahill was seconded as National Expert in Policy to the European Commission Research and Innovation (HORIZON2020) (DG RTD) Directorate, with special emphasis on International Cooperation for Strategy and Policy coordination, with Asia and European Free Trade Area and enlargement countries, Russia & the Pacific.

This secondment was supported by UCD, the School of Medicine and Medical Sciences and the Irish government. This role involved international policy coordination and development in Research and Innovation, including with respect to Horizon2020. She was responsible for international cooperation aspects with South Korea and she was a backup for ASEAN and China. She was the Thematic Correspondent for Health and involved in Strategy Development within the unit.

She worked on Framework Conditions and Commercialisation aspects, for example on the International Cooperation Dialogue, within this region.