Dr. Siobhain M. O’Mahony, PhD

Senior Lecturer, Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University College Cork, Cork, Republic of Ireland

Siobhain O’Mahony graduated with a BSc (Hons) in neuroscience from University College Cork (UCC), Cork, Republic of Ireland. She then went on to complete a Master’s in neuropharmacology in the National University of Ireland, Galway, Republic of Ireland. As part of her Master’s, she worked in the Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology in the University of Maastricht, Maastricht, the Netherlands, which was funded by a Marie Curie Fellowship, before obtaining a PhD from the Department of Psychiatry at UCC. Following this, Dr O’Mahony continued her research on adverse early life events and the development of pain-related disorders during a post-doctoral post in the APC Microbiome Ireland, Biosciences Institute, UCC, and then took up a post-doctoral position with GlaxoSmithKline. In 2008, she was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience at UCC, and now works as Senior Lecturer teaching anatomy and neuroscience across ten programmes in UCC. She is also Director for a taught MSc in human anatomy, which is the first of its kind in Ireland.  
Dr O’Mahony’s main research areas assess outcomes of adverse events during pregnancy and the first 1,000 days of life, in particular the disruption of the developing gut microbiota and how this can lead to miscommunication within the brain–gut–microbiota axis. The outcomes assessed include the neurodevelopment of children, and stress-related disorders and visceral pain in adulthood and how these may be ameliorated through manipulation of the gut microbiota. She is also interested in gender-related differences in pain perception and how this relates to the gut microbiota. Her research group is based in the APC Microbiome Ireland and the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience in the Biosciences Institute and the Western Gateway Building, UCC. She has a h-index of 32 and has many successful national and international academic and industry collaborations.