Professor Helen Roche
Interim Vice-President for Research, Impact and Innovation
Professor Helen Roche is Interim Vice-President for Research, Impact and Innovation and Full Professor Nutrigenomics (Nutrition & Omics). She trained initially in Human Nutrition and Dietetics, then completed her PhD in Nutrition and Metabolism and MSc in Molecular Medicine at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). In 1999 she won a Wellcome Trust New Blood Fellowship, beginning her career as a Wellcome Fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK) before returning to Ireland in 2001 to establish one of the first teams in Nutrigenomics in Europe at TCD. In 2007 she was appointed Professor Nutrigenomics at the UCD Conway Institute and the UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science.
Helen has held a range of research roles in UCD, including VP of Research, Innovation and Impact for the College of Health and Agricultural Sciences. In 2021 was appointed Director of the UCD Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research.
Her Nutrigenomics team focuses on Precision Nutrition – which is akin to Precision Medicine, wherein her team investigates the molecular impact of diet on metabolism and inflammation which can be quite variable between people with obesity related type 2 diabetes (T2D), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and obesity-related cancer. Helen’s team is supported by a range of funders, including three successive SFI Investigator / Frontiers Awards, Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, as well as different European and Wellcome Trust awards.
Helen is a Fellow of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences and SFI Mentor of the Year 2022. She also served a Board member for the RCSI Hospital Group. In Europe, she led several initiatives relating to food, nutrition and health. She chaired the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Healthy Life Healthy Diet Joint Programming Initiative (2015-2019). She regularly advises grant agencies in the UK, Netherlands, and US, relating to different international Nutrition Research initiatives.
A key personal remit has been to foster Emerging Investigator success. Professor Roche has supervised more than 30 PhD scientists and a similar number of post-doctoral researchers.
Email: (opens in a new window)vprii@ucd.ie
Phone: (353 1) 716 4031