Associate Professor, UCD Conway Institute

Professor Taylor was appointed Associate Professor at UCD School of Medicine & Medical Science in 2006. He worked previously as a college lecturer at UCD, based at UCD Conway Institute. Prior to taking up a post with the School, Professor Taylor held the post of research fellow at Bringam and Women's Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. He was awarded his PhD in 1996 from the Department of Pharmacology UCD.

Professor Taylor’s current research programme in molecular medicine is directed towards developing an innovative intestinal model of drug uptake and an enhanced drug delivery system. The programme, which works in association with Sigmoid Biotechnologies, is focused on the areas of infection, immunity and inflammation. The simulation model predicts accurately how efficiently a drug is absorbed into a patient’s bloodstream.

The research team under Professor Taylor recently discovered a potential treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which affects millions of people globally and more than 15,000 people in Ireland. Using a new class of drugs known as hydroxylase inhibitors, the research team demonstrated that they can almost completely reverse the symptoms of IBD in a model.

The findings have resulted in a cross-university partnership with the University of Colorado in Denver who are working on a different hydroxylase inhibitor in conjunction with UCD Conway Institute team’s industry partner, Sigmoid Biotechnologies. Their work will generate strong lead compounds for future clinical trials.