Elizabeth Ryan is a Lecturer in Immunology at the Department of Biological Sciences and Investigator in the Health Research Institute and Biomaterials cluster of the Bernal Institute at the University of Limerick.

Dr. Ryan received her PhD in Immunology in 2000 on the topic of Whooping Cough vaccination with Prof. Kingston Mills. She then undertook a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Prof. Ed Clark at the University of Washington, Seattle where she made significant contribution to understanding how human dendritic cells activate B cells. This was followed by a Marie Curie Fellowship at the Immunology Research Department of Sanofi-Pasteur, Lyon.

In 2005 she returned to Ireland to where she developed a translational immunology research programme in collaboration with Prof. Cliona O’Farrelly on liver dendritic cells and response to the Hepatitis C virus. From 2010-2018 she was Senior Scientist at the Centre for Colorectal Disease at St. Vincent’s Hospital. Where she led a translational research programme in colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

Her current research benefits from her wide experience in vaccination, viral and bacterial infection and translational research to focus on understanding the role of human myeloid cells (macrophages/dendritic cells) play in controlling inflammation.

She is particularly interested in how these important immune cells might be manipulated by the local tissue environment in diseases such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Colorectal Cancer.