Research News

Each month, we put a 'Spotlight On' a different researcher in the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine to find out more about the path leading to their current role in the School, their area of interest and what drew them into this area, what they enjoy most about their work and the best thing about working in the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine.

Click on the links below to find out more about our most recent ‘Spotlight On’ features:

• Cristina San Pio Solanilla, shares her journey from small-animal practice in Spain to PhD research at UCD Dublin. A story of resilience, career pivots, and embracing One Health collaboration to advance treatments for Parkinson’s disease.
• From bar manager to vet nurse to band frontman: Mark McCorry’s scenic journey to UCD Vet Med is anything but ordinary.
• Growing up on a cattle farm in rural Paraguay, Dr Osvaldo Bogado Pascottini's early experiences shaped his passion for animal health and sustainable farming. Today, his research focuses on improving uterine health in dairy cows and exploring microbiome-based alternatives to antibiotics

Herd

• Finbar Mulligan presented to Kerry Agri on Dairy cow nutrition and management at pasture. 3 July 2025
• Emmet Kelly was on the organising committee for the recent ECAR Summer school 2025 (10th to 11th September) held in Bulgaria (ECAR Summerschool 2025 – CME). It involved 30 ECAR residents attending lectures over two days in advance of the ESDAR conference. Emmet delivered a series of training lectures on male and female infertility, mammary disease, neonatology and abortion in ruminants
• Emmet Kelly also chaired and presented at a Workshop (Alongside Professor Nikola Metodiev from Institute of Animal Science, Kostinbrod, Bulgaria) at ESDAR 2025 (12th to 13th of September) in Bulgaria (took place after the Summer school) on the topic of "How-to-do II: Assisted reproduction in small ruminants. Please follow this (opens in a new window)link to read the abstract

Pathology

• Mary Sekiya - Received UCD Values in Action award for Driving Sustainability

Small Animal

• Benoit Cuq organised the 10th Annual VIRIES Forum in Kyoto (4th to 6th August ) as part of his duties as VIRIES Secretary

Bioscience David Brayden - Conferences

• “An assessment of the trends in oral peptide administration,” 4th Controlled Release Society Workshop on Oral Peptide administration (Philadelphia, July 2025). Keynote and Workshop Co-Chair.
• “ Formulation approaches to improve oral delivery of peptides: the BMS-UCD project,” Invited seminar, Bristol Myers Squibb, (New Brunswick, NJ, July 2025)
• “Formulation approaches for oral peptide administration: which strategies are most promising?” Invited speaker, 16th Academy PharmSci International Conference (Cardiff, September 2025)

Equine

• Dr Michael Duggan and Dr Vivienne Duggan: ECHO “Equine Collaboration for Health & Outreach” with Irish Equine Centre, Teagasc, UL, CAFRE; One-day session at the National Stud Sept
• RDS Dublin Horse Show: UCDVH Stand, Students assisting the vets and case referred during the week.

• Dr Sinead Devine: North Connacht Clinical Society Talk October
• Dr Sinead Devine: DAFM Workshop Equine ID and Traceability
• Dr Vilhelmiina Huuskonen was interviewed for the UCD CHAS Researcher Showcase. The profile is scheduled to be published on October 4, which is the World Animal Day

• N LewisTwo invited talks European Embryo Transfer Society meeting Cork (3-5th Sept)