Meet our Bernalite Jack O鈥 Callaghan, a PhD researcher in biological engineering.
His passion for science ignited in secondary school, where he would structure his year around STEM competitions like the BT Young Scientist and SciFest. Influenced by these self-learning experiences, Jack originally wanted to study theoretical physics. But one day he stumbled upon chemistry, something that has significantly influenced his current research interests. Jack graduated with a BEng in Chemical & Biochemical Engineering from UL in 2020.
Towards the end of 2020, he began a two-year funded research Masters with the SSPC in computational biophysics. While studying neurodegenerative pathogenesis, Jack was introduced to intrinsically disordered proteins (or IDPs). These unstructured proteins are commonly associated with diseases like Alzheimer鈥檚 or Parkinson鈥檚. In 2021, Jack was awarded a 3-year GOIPG research scholarship to forge a link between IDPs, drug design, and a major challenge in global health: antimicrobial resistance.
What does this mean?
鈥淲e are engaged in an 鈥榚volutionary arms race鈥 with bacteria. We make a new antibiotic, and the bacteria mutate to resist its effect. This is a race that we are losing big time. The rate at which bacteria are evolving resistance has vastly outpaced the rate at which we are developing new antibiotics 鈥 that's the key challenge of antimicrobial resistance. My research is trying to probe the issue of AMR from a completely new angle. By exploring the role that bacterial IDPs play in the evolution of resistance, I hope to reveal a novel therapeutic strategy. One end goal of my project is to engineer something like a silver bullet. We make a drug that forces the bacteria between a rock and a hard place 鈥 if they allow the antibiotic to work, they die. And if they mutate, the negative effects resulting from the mutations compromise the cells, making them easier to kill.鈥
Jack is fortunate enough to have three mentors supervising him: Prof. Damien Thompson, Prof. Sarah Hudson, and Dr. Michael Ryan. Biological engineering is highly multidisciplinary 鈥 under their mentorship, Jack integrates knowledge from a wide range of fields into his project in order to pose and answer complex questions about antimicrobial resistance.
Why is this important?
鈥淚 think, sometimes people take for granted just how important antibiotics are for modern health. For example, before antibiotics were developed, things like tuberculosis or pneumonia were a death sentence. That's why I think the work that I'm doing now is important. We urgently need new strategies to combat these drug-resistant infections. If we don't, we risk going back to an era where we don't have the drugs necessary to fight them, which has significant consequences for global health.鈥
If Jack鈥檚 life could be a theme song, he said: 鈥Brand New by Ben Rector.鈥 The song reminds him of those moments in research where you discover something new, and that reinvigorating feeling of a breakthrough helps you #staycurious on the path of innovation.
Great Friday feeling right there! Best of luck in all your work, we are proud to call you a , from