Your research is on the microbiome, why are you interested in that?
Yes I work on the microbiome, the trillions of bacteria and other microorganisms that populate living things, including plants and animals and us, particularly our guts. Within these populations of bacteria all living together, the bugs feed each other and talk to each other, and they also compete with each other for resources like available food.
Some bacteria have developed a whole arsenal of antimicrobials to get rid of other bacteria they are competing with, the ones that would otherwise eat their dinner. That’s what my research looks at.
What are you focusing on in particular?
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I’m interested in proteins that bacteria produce called bacteriocins. These can quite selectively kill particular types of bacteria, unlike the broader antibiotics that we use in medicine, which often kill many different types of bacteria causing a lot of collateral damage in the microbiome.
This is partly why you may have an upset tummy with antibiotics, you might get diarrhoea and undesirable bacteria growing in your gut. Together with my long-term collaborator Prof Colin Hill, our research is finding more selective proteins that bacteria use themselves to take out their competitors in the microbiome without that big upset.
You were recently awarded the 2021 Danisco Foundation Microbiome Science Award, so I guess the research is going well?
Thank you, it is. We have found a slew of peptides or proteins that can kill bacteria. And what I find amazing is that even though bacteria are very simple, these proteins they produce can be very complex. Ultimately, we would like to use these proteins to tackle bacterial infections in more targeted ways and improve the health of the microbiome.
When did you develop an interest in science?
I was always fascinated by it. I was a member of the astronomy club in Cork as a kid, and Santy used to bring me chemistry sets and microscopes. Then I studied biochemistry and microbiology in UCC and it went from there.
You are married to Prof Catherine Stanton, who is also a microbiome researcher. Do you bring work home as a topic of conversation?
We met in college – Catherine studied nutrition and biochemistry, so she has a different perspective on questions – and we work together on projects about the microbiome. So if at home one of us is talking too much about work the other calls a halt to it and we change the conversation. Our kids are grown up now and are working in science too.
What do you wish people knew more about the microbiome?
I think sometimes people have a misconception that you can take a single probiotic supplement and that is a silver bullet that will solve all your problems. Your microbiome is heavily influenced by many things, including what you eat, what medications you have taken and how much exercise you get. So introducing a single bug into the thousands of bugs that are already there might be helpful, but it is just one part of a much bigger picture.
How do you look after your own microbiome?
I eat cereal in the morning, porridge, even though I don’t particularly like it, and try to avoid antibiotics where possible.
And finally, how to you get away from research?
I really like motorcycles – I motorcycle to and from work (100km) every day and I restore old motorcycles. I’ve just finished one – a Norton Dominator built in the 1950s. I also fish, about once a week on average over a year, salmon and deep-sea angling. I love it!
