EMERGEN BIO - Key Persons
Kevin Kavanagh is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Kevin has a PhD in Fungal Biotechnology. He has a long standing interest in the immune systems of insects and in studying structural and functional similarities with the innate immune systems of mammals. His recent pioneering research has focused on the similarities between immune cells of insects (haemocytes) and one of the main immune cells of mammals (neutrophils). Kevin has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and has attracted funding of approximately 5 million from national and international agencies in his academic career. He has an extremely active research group, and has graduated 17 PhD students since his appointment in 1995. The quality of his research has been recognized internationally, and he has been invited to sit on many grant-awarding bodies. He has also been asked to edit key textbooks for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Kieran leads the business development of Emergen Bio. Kieran has worked in the diagnostic industry for over 25 years before joining NUI Maynooth in 2009. He has extensive experience in diagnostic test development and manufacture, in both the human and veterinary diagnostic sectors, with product development expertise ranging from sub-components for use in research applications, to finished immunodiagnostic assay systems. Diagnostic platforms included ELISA, lateral flow, turbidimetric, nanoparticle as well as clinical chemistry assays. Tests developed have been have been used in both human and veterinary diagnostic applications, as well as for use in pre-clinical drug discovery.
Sean Doyle is a Professor at the Department of Biology NUI Maynooth. His main research interests lie in the functional proteomic and genomic characterisation of Aspergillus fumgiatus, (a human pathogen) and in the development of novel bioanalytical assay systems for novel analytes. He has a PhD in Biochemistry and is expert in all aspects of proteomics. Sean has worked in the immunodiagnostic industry and was previously Head of R&D with Biotrin (Dublin) (1993-1997). He was responsible for the development and transfer to manufacturing of 15 immunodiagnostic products along with associated regulatory and intellectual property issues. He has graduated 12 PhD and 7 MSc graduates and has been internal and external examiner for numerous theses (MSc and PhD). To date, he has published over 50 peer-reviewed publications, spoken at numerous international meetings, is a named inventor on 10 patents and patent applications and has advised a number of commercial organisations on assay development and proteomics.