One of Ireland's foremost medical leaders joins the College

Imperial College London News Release

For immediate release
Friday 6 January 2012

Professor Dermot Kelleher FMedSci, one of Ireland’s foremost medical leaders and a pioneer in the field of immune response and infectious disease, has been appointed Principal of Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine.  He takes up the role on 1 October 2012.

Professor Kelleher, currently the Vice-Provost for Medical Affairs and Head of the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin, has over 30 years’ experience in research, teaching and medical leadership. He will direct the Faculty of Medicine's activities, and will be a member of the College's Management Board, its senior decision-making body. Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine is one of Europe’s largest higher education medical institutions with over 1,000 students, more than 2,300 staff and a research income of more than £140 million. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010-11 Imperial was ranked third in the world for clinical, preclinical and health subjects. 

Professor Kelleher succeeds Professor Sir Anthony Newman Taylor, who has been  Principal since December 2010.

Welcoming the appointment, Rector Sir Keith O'Nions said: “Professor Kelleher is an international leader, with an outstanding record in academic medicine. His emphasis on translating research discoveries from the laboratory to frontline patient care fits perfectly with Imperial’s vision, and I am delighted to welcome him to the College.”

Professor Dermot Kelleher said, “Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine has an international reputation for excellence and a global reach that I have long admired. I share in its vision for research translation, both through its activities in the Academic Health Science Centre and the future partnership with health providers in North West London. A huge strength of Imperial is the opportunity to build links between medicine and its other academic disciplines – engineering, science and business. I look forward to collaborating with all colleagues across the College to further strengthen Imperial’s medical research and teaching activities and help take the Faculty to new heights.”

Graduating in medicine from Trinity College Dublin in 1978, Professor Kelleher completed specialist training in gastroenterology and subsequently received a Fogarty Scholarship in 1986 funding a research fellowship at University of California San Diego. He returned to Trinity in 1989 as a Wellcome Senior Fellow in Clinical Science and was appointed to the Trinity College Chair in Clinical Medicine in 2001. In 2006 he was appointed Head of the School of Medicine and Vice-Provost for Medical Affairs.

Professor Kelleher’s research examines the immune response to many of the leading causes of gastrointestinal infectious disease worldwide, including organisms such as Helicobacter pylori and Clostridium difficile. A focus of his work has been using tools derived from cell biology to analyse the function of the lymphocyte, a type of white blood cell, in the body’s response to infectious agents and inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease.

Professor Kelleher was instrumental to the founding in 2002 of the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre, a joint venture between the three major medical schools and their associated academic hospitals in Dublin aimed at accelerating the translation of biomedical research into improved diagnostics and therapies for patients. Known as Molecular Medicine Ireland since 2008 this not-for-profit company has provided both a corporate and a physical infrastructure to support significant developments in medical biotechnology in Ireland.  

The author of over 200 publications and 14 patents, Professor Kelleher is a founding member of Opsona Therapeutics, a spin out company at Trinity College Dublin which identifies new ways to prevent and treat autoimmune/inflammatory conditions, cancers and infectious diseases.

Professor Kelleher has just completed his term as Chairman of the Eurolife Consortium of European Medical Schools, and has served as a member of the Board of the Health Research Board Ireland, the European Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust Clinical Interest Group. 

A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Royal College of Physicians (London), Trinity College Dublin, and the American Gastroenterology Association, he was awarded the 2011 Conway Medal by the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

A longer biography is available in Notes to Editors below and a photograph of Professor Kelleher is available on request.

For further information contact:

Simon Watts
Imperial College London Press Office

Tel: 020 7594 6701
Email: s.watts@imperial.ac.uk

J-P Jones
Imperial College London Press Office

Tel: 020 7594 6704
Email: john-paul.jones@imperial.ac.uk

Notes to Editors:

About Professor Dermot Kelleher

A graduate of medicine from Trinity College, Professor Kelleher completed specialist training in gastroenterology in Dublin and subsequently received a Fogarty Scholarship for a research fellowship at University of California San Diego. He returned to Trinity in 1989 as the Wellcome Senior Fellow in Clinical Science and was subsequently appointed as Professor of Clinical Medicine in 2001. In 2006 he was appointed Head of School of Medicine and Vice-Provost for Medical Affairs.

Professor Kelleher’s research has focused on the cell biology of immune responses both in terms of basic lymphocyte function and in relationship to mucosal immunology. His research has been focused on the immune response to many of the leading causes of infectious disease worldwide. He is the author of approximately 200 publications and 14 patents.

Professor Kelleher, in collaboration with Professor Hugh Brady at University College Dublin, obtained collaborative grant funding to establish the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre, a joint venture between the three major medical schools in Dublin which provides a physical infrastructure for significant developments in medical biotechnology in Ireland. This has now become Molecular Medicine Ireland. He is the inaugural director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine, a Trinity College Dublin facility at St James’s Hospital.

Professor Kelleher is a founding member of Opsona Therapeutics, a spinout company at Trinity College Dublin based on development of therapeutic technologies founded on innate immunity and T-regulatory cells. Professor Kelleher has served as a member of the Board of the Health Research Board Ireland, the European Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust Clinical Interest Group.  He also serves on several National Bodies in the Health sector and on the board of ICON plc.

A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (London), Royal College of Physicians (London), Trinity College Dublin, and the American Gastroenterology Association, he was awarded the 2011 Conway Medal by the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

About Imperial College London

Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 14,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, en gineering an d business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.

Since its foundation in 1907, Imperial's contributions to society have included the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of research for the benefit of all continues today, with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to improve global health, tackle climate change, develop sustainable sources of energy and address security challenges.

In 2007, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust formed the UK's first Academic Health Science Centre. This unique partnership aims to improve the quality of life of patients and populations by taking new discoveries and translating them into new therapies as quickly as possible.