Full Professor
UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science
Emma is Full Professor of Zoology at UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science. She established the Laboratory of Molecular Evolution and Mammalian Phylogenetics in 2005 and is the Founding Director of the Centre for Irish Bat Research at UCD. She was listed in top 100 female Irish scientists (2014).
She investigates the evolutionary relationships among mammals both at the nucleotide and genomic level. Mammals are one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates, with large differences in body size, life span, ecological adaptation, metabolic rate, behaviour, reproduction and locomotion. She examines this variation using comparative genomics to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying morphological and physiological adaptation and to help annotate and explain our own genome.
Emma uses evolutionary analyses of whole genomes and targeted genes sequenced in divergent species to understand of the patterns of human disease mutations in many inherited visual and auditory diseases. She also investigates how species and populations transform in response to recent environmental changes and use genetic data to inform conservation management plans.
Emma was awarded a prestigious European Research Council Starting grant (2012) and a Science Foundation Ireland, President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (2006). Her integrative research in the fields of zoology, phylogenetics, genomics and conservation biology uncovers the genetic signatures of survival that enables species to adapt to an ever-changing environment.
She is a Founding Director of the genome consortium Bat1K. This is an initiative to sequence the genomes of all living bat species, approximately 1400 species in total. The main goal is to uncover the genes and genetic mechanisms behind the unusual adaptations of bats, essentially mine the bat genome to uncover their secrets.